Pandora's bottle
by Themightytom
Summary: Following the events of "Moebius" an alternate SG-1 finds their mission accomplished, but their purpose gone, meanwhile an irate Ra and Anubis find better things to do than return to the Tauri, and above it all ancients watch, and meddle. Reviews welcome
1. Orphans of the Gods

**Ruin**

"Do you not see even stones yield to the power of time, lofty towers fall to decay, and the rocks molder away? Temples and statues of the gods go to ruin, nor can the gods themselves prolong their date or get reprieve from fate"

Lucretius

**Prologue**

The sun burned down on the hot sand as the wind scratched irritably across it. Time and again in this great expanse some creature sought to make its mark, whether it was a scorpion tracking tiny prints in the sand or a jackal searching for food. Marks were made and then washed away. The desert reigned eternal. Save for the blowing wind, silence held the desert, but in one small corner of the desert a new sound reigned, the thunder of voices joined in unison, a cry of defiance, a cry of determination, a cry of victory.

Two figures stood on a high dune, unnoticed by the roaring crowd below. They watched as a band of alien warriors were surrounded by a horde of simple desert folk provoked at last to raise up arms. Nearby a battered craft sat smoking and smoldering in the sand.

"Frak!" hissed the man, "The timing couldn't have been worse! I can hear that maniac laughing a galaxy away, how could this happen! Can we get to the other gate?"

"It is buried in ice! Any efforts to remove it could alter the flow of history immeasurably, especially now that the goa'uld will be trying to return through it. We were outmaneuvered, "Answered the woman beside him, "Even our greatest tactician couldn't out guess the evil we face, he is the Lord of Lies, the great deceiver, how can we hope to oppose him?"

"Sheba get a hold of yourself!" urged the man turning and gripping the woman's shoulders, "Even now he still has power over you! We must think!! "

"I'm sorry." Replied Sheba shaking herself, "its been so long and yet still I…" she gave a violent shudder. "Enough of that, Starbuck we must tell the others, ask for their help. There are too few of us left here."

"The others!" scoffed Starbuck, "This is all their doing, they confuse love of free will with apathy! They won't see the menace we're up against until its too late!"

"We must ensure than, that that does not happen." Stated Sheba resolutely, she paused suddenly as if struck by an idea, "Iblis may have just miscalculated, he has gambled that by dividing our forces he may cripple us one at a time, but if there is anything my father has taught me, it is to never leave an enemy for dead. Do you remember what he used to say about heroes?"

"'Old heroes never die, they just fade away.'" Answered the Starbuck confused then realization dawned.

"What would happen if these heroes didn't just 'fade away'" mused the woman, "They would be free to exercise their "free will" of course."

"Lady I think you might just have something up your sleeve." Said the man slowly with a lop sided grin, they both turned and watched a man and a woman stumble from the alien craft below. "But what about Apollo, and Athena? What about your father? They're smack in the middle of whatever Iblis has cooked up on New kobol, they're behind enemy lines!"

"There are few things in the universe more dangerous than my father behind enemy lines." Commented Sheba catching Starbuck's eye. Slowly he began to smile as he realized what she could mean.


	2. The enemy unseen

Chapter 1

As Sam and Jack emerged from the battered puddle jumper, Daniel noticed they were holding hands. He shot a knowing glance at Teal'c, who returned it impassively. Daniel reminded himself this was not the Teal'c he knew.

"We have secured control of the gate." Stated Teal'c, "I believe we have done the very thing you sought to do."

"Right, we can probably correct the timeline from here on out." Said Daniel, "In the original timeline the gate was buried at Giza, for an expedition in my timeline to find lead by Doctor Langford. Burying the gate should also prevent the return of the goa'ould."

"How's that again?" asked O'neil, "Won't they just return in force?"

"I don't believe so no." said Daniel, "They first came to earth for its people, they kidnapped thousands of primitive peoples and used them as better hosts, from these people they created the jaffa and the workers in their mines, but as far as I can tell, that is the only valuable commodity around here."

"Daniel Jackson is correct." Agreed Tealc, "This world possesses few rare minerals, such as naquita, there is no purpose in sending a fleet to retake this world for so little to gain. This world will most likely be forgotten."

"We should gather up as much of the advanced technology the goa'uld left as we can." Suggested Sam, "Put it in the jumper, while we figure out what to do with it."

The four turned to climb the dunes, and in the distance they could already see the stargate being pulled down by a mob of victorious primitives. Great stones were being pulled towards the fallen stargate.

"What about the glowy thing you first came here for, the heart of light?" asked O'neill, "If that's some kind of advanced power supply won't he come back for it?"

"There's nothing to suggest Ra had any idea what it was." Said Daniel, "With the ancients long gone to the Pegasus galaxy, I doubt there is anyone left who even knows what it is let alone anyone who could find a use for it."

****

"Assemble a fleet!" roared Anubis, "We must regain possession of the heart of light!" The dark ruler of the system lords had sprang from his chair and hurled Ra's first prime backwards in his rage. His fury was broken by a vice like hand grasping his forearm, he turned back in surprise to his brother Ra.

"Calm yourself brother." Chastised Ra, the flash in his eyes implying this was not a request, "The Tauri are nothing, the heart of light is nothing. I have known its secrets for some time."

Ra stood and gestured to a servant. Immediately the small boy took from a box a jewel from which spikes projected.

"Behold, the Eyes of Ra." Intoned the Sun god. "These crystals focus the power of the cosmos. With these we can rule the galaxy!"

"Will they power the Chappa'Ai?" demanded Anubis, "Can we find Kobol?"

"Indeed." Declared Ra, "We are Gods, brother, the galaxy is ours, and soon, with the powers of ascension the universe itself will bow to us."

***

"Representatives of the Colonial Ascendants are recognized." Spoke a cultured and commanding voice. "Starbuck and Sheba, what matter do you bring before us?"

The man from the desert, who was indeed Starbuck, once famed viper pilot and gambler stepped forward. Sheba strode beside him and has he opened his mouth she spoke first, leaving him to pause chagrined and than roll his eyes in irritation.

"Council of Ascendeds, let me first thank you for your attention. In our quest for understanding it can be difficult to return our gaze to the mortal realms from which we came. Many of you prefer to look forward rather than backwards, but it is backwards we must now turn, to assess the wake of our departure. The being known as Iblis has grown, troublesome of late. For centuries we have maintained that he does not abide by the terms of our agreement on new Kobol, rather he scorns them at every turn. We are convinced his machinations have never stopped and that he only awaits opportunity to subvert free will for his own ends."

"Indeed you and yours have raised this concern." Replied the chairman gravely, "Yet you have not produced evidence. Our observer has sent no word."

Starbuck cleared his throat. "Your observer has been compromised." He replied loudly, "Our own representative reported that Pythia's health was failing decades ago."

"Pythia ascended long before your people were helped to do so." Replied the speaker irritably, "The very idea that she could have become "Senile" as you so colorfully put it, is absurd. She has adopted mannerisms that could be considered unusual yes, but that is her prerogative."

"She's a raving…" began Starbuck but Sheba gripped his arm forcefully, the motion in physical terms represented a relatively powerful psionic shove on the plane in which they existed at present, one thing that had always rankled Starbuck was that though in life he had been of decent physical condition, his psionic "footprint" was somewhat unfocused and as a result his stature in this realm was diminished. He subsided as Sheba intervened.

"Respectfully chairman, Athena has been very clear in her regular reports that Pythia has exhibited increasing dementia over the years. Her condition improved prior to her last "Scheduled" presentation, but diminished rapidly afterwards. It is our suspicion that Iblis is responsible for this, our own representative has gone quiet of late and we are extremely concerned."

"So much so that you dispatched two of your own to intervene?" questioned the chairman "Iblis is within his rights to charge that it is you who violated the agreement."

"What the frak?" Exploded Starbuck, concentration or no, he was able to focus his rage quite effectively, and Sheba could not have restrained him had she wanted to. She herself was stunned at the enormity of that statement. "Iblis manipulated the Cylon empire into massacring my people so he could gain a few more followers. The lords of Kobol had him dead to rights when you intervened citing your "enlightened" policies. We have held up our end of this farce, you're the ones who fed your own observer to the Daggits. Pythia has lost her mind because of something Iblis did, doesn't that mean anything to you? The man committed genocide as a profession and he's up to some…" Suddenly Starbuck vanished.

"The representative of the Colonial Ascendancy is out of order." Intoned the Chairman. "A motion has been submitted to table this item until further notice."

"Wait!" pleaded Sheba, "I wish to speak!"

"The council recognizes the representative Sheba but admonishes her not to carry on in the manner of her colleague." Cautioned the chairman, "Rage and petulance are not the way of an enlightened people."

"We have sent representatives to the galaxy of Kobol to verify the intentions of iblis, and the condition of iblis." Explained Sheba, "This was not intended as a slight to the council, merely to supplement existing testimony that was dismissed as unsubstantiated. If iblis is returning to his own ways, we wish for this council to be aware of it in case action is necessary. If Iblis were to alert to Ori to our presence through his actions, or attract the attention of the Jinn once more…"

"It is conceded that these threats are possible." Stated the chairman testily, "but unlikely. Does the representative have new evidence or a motion?"

"A temporal paradox has been produced on Earth.' Declared Sheba quickly, "The humans were to have defeated the goa'uld years before this yet they have only now done so and only with the use of a time machine of Lantean origin and humans from the future."

There was a hush as the gathering digested this.

"It is not clear that iblis had any hand in this." Stated the chairman doubtfully, "What is your evidence?"

"The initial change to the timeline originates in Atlantis." Stated Sheba, "A puddle jumper was retrieved and a woman claiming to be from the future arrived stating that a future expedition from Earth would be killed when the shield on Atlantis failed. Development of this technology has been banned, yet another craft of Lantean origin arrived five years ago on Earth, carrying a group of humans, from the future, seeking a replacement ZPM."

"The council does not see how iblis has had a hand in any of this." Scoffed the chairman, "Certainly our own Janus, has been…errant, however he has been punished accordingly."

"This is evidence of a future in chaos!" exclaimed Sheba, "Both the Goa'uld and the wraith are running amok! You can see plain as day that the Unas are direct descendants of the original Cylons, it is known that their Imperious leader was a servant of iblis, Iblis ALLOWED the goa'uld to gain hosts to enslave the galaxy, and the Wraith? How exactly do you suppose an Eratus bug of Youzhon Vong design managed to develop on a planet in a galaxy beyond their space capability? These are agents of Iblis, doing his work in the future, without either threat the humans would never have had to resort to time travel."

"This is speculation based on speculation based on premise that has not been proven." Scoffed the chairman. "The council is not disposed to aid your people any further in your persecution of Iblis. You were permitted to ascend with the understanding that you would leave your attachments to past lives behind and interfere no further. Those of your people who could not accept this moved on. If your people continue to behave in such a way, you will be ejected from this plane and limited strictly toe your original dimensional existence." Sheba opened her mouth and closed it.

"I would like to protest the actions of this council, however I will abide by your decisions." Stated Sheba, "It was not my intention to revisit an old grievance, I merely wished to appraise the council of a current concern."

"There is no further discussion on this topic."

Sheba was gathering herself to depart when she froze hearing the next declaration.

"We will move to the next item on the agenda, the punishment of Starbuck."


	3. The torment of Cestus

Chapter 2

"Does anyone else find it odd that we are still here?" asked Daniel he nibbled at a roasted beetle as his friends eyed him with some disgust. "Bonne wei!" he announced, to his waiting Egyptian audience, and as the cry went out the festivities began. Night had fallen and a "banquet had been prepared. Unfortunately the food was not to Sam or Jack's liking. Sam produced an energy bar and offered it to jack. O'Neil in turn produced several MREs. He tossed one to Tealc who viewed it quizzically.

"That's beef stroganoff." Explained Daniel helpfully, "your other self loved it. That one comes with oreos too."

"Indeed." Answered Tealc doubtfully. As Daniel helped him to set up the sternum and to mix the ingredients he returned to his original question.

"Sam you're still a physicist right? Shouldn't we have vanished by now once the timeline corrected itself?"

"well, its all theoretical, and there is obviously evidence that that is not the case.." Answered Carter, "By all rights we shouldn't even be able to travel through time without causing a chain reaction leading to entropy."

"And where is that?" asked O'neil drolly,

"Entropy is the chaotic dissolution of the universe." Sam informed him.

"Oh." Said Jack, "Cake anyone?" he asked offering a swiss roll. Tealc quietly took the swiss roll and placed the Oreos by Jack. After taking a bite of the Swiss roll, he returned it, jack made a grab at the Oreos but at a look from Tealc he changed his mind.

"We are here, and the universe is here, does this mean we still haven't corrected the timeline?" asked Daniel

"There must be other variables involved." Answered Sam thoughtfully, "By all rights, our timeline should have pre-empted yours, Dr. Jackson, so when your team changed history, they would have erased their existence, which would have changed history back, leading right back to the circumstances that lead to the original change. What should have occurred was a paradoxical loop destabilizing the universe. Your existence was evidence from the start that our existence would be assured whatever the resulting timeline. Our experience could change the fundamental understanding of what a paradox is, this could be our biggest leap in understanding since we began to include zero in our number system!" She deflated after a moment, "Of course I can't exactly publish a paper on the topic."

"Sure you can!" encouraged O'neil, "Just ask Captain cuniform over there to chisel out some more Egyptian stone tablets."

"Right, Jack thank you for that montage of cultural misinformation." Cut in Daniel testily, "So how do we know if we even corrected the timeline?" asked Daniel,

"I believe we will have to return to our time to be sure." Answered Teal'c

"well." Said Jack, 'Lets do it up! There's no time like the present… or past.." he finished lamely as the others stared at him.

"Jack the Jumper took quite a bit of damage during the battle, and I'm not sure how much of it even works, I should probably look it over before we try a trip through time. I can use the notes my counterpart left behind to do a damage assessment."

"We also need to put things back the way we found them." Said Daniel, "In forming the rebellion, I had them construct several weapons caches that we need to destroy. They didn't exist in my timeline and there's no telling how things will change if we leave them. There's also the wreckage of the two hataks we sabotaged during the revolt, it has to be carefully demolished so that no advanced technology survives."

"How do you plan to accomplish that?" Sam wanted to know.

"I can simply convince them that the weapons of the Gods could cause their return." Said Daniel, "Records must be erased, the ships blasted into nothing, the caches destroyed after that., I can have them start tomorrow."

"Well be sure to take along whatever we can still use, no telling what we will run into from here on out, and don't take too long." Ordered O'Neil, "We only have so many MREs."

***

"This has all happened before. This will all happen again." Intoned a cracked aged voice her voice echoed in the vast chamber around them. The floor shone with torchlight as her followers crouched before her.

"The time of Iblis draws near to an end." Intoned the woman, shuffling from one side of a dais to another, "The time of Kobol draws near to an end. The serpents will bring darkness, they are vipers of the night. My followers you must be ready, you must prepare!" she screeched, "Live virtuous lives and avoid the temptations of Iblis. Look to your tribes for strength and trust no outsiders, for soon you yourselves will be infiltrated."

Her followers listened respectfully to her tirade until at last she came to stand before one of them.

"Cestus my friend, how is your faith?" cackled the old woman.

"Strong as always." Asserted the man, " I stand ready to do anything you command of me."

"Good." Beamed the woman. "Bring in my lamb."

Movement at the door heralded the entry of two men guiding a dark haired woman who was clearly drugged.

"Behold the Goddess Athena." Cackled Pythia."False God." She corrected herself. "She has mislead our people for centuries, she is the Goddess of War, of conflict." Pythia swallowed and seemed to go into a daze, "And of wisdom… yet war is never wise…" She trailed off uncertainly. Around her the crowds shifted. Pythia tilted her head as if listening for a moment and suddenly shook it.

"The time of false Gods is at an end, there is one true God, he will be our salvation. He will deliver us from our selves, from our sins, from the corruption of mortal flesh!" She proclaimed, "There will come a time of fire and darkness, but Athena will lead the way!" She proclaimed, "Ane age of darkness will herald a golden age!" Pythia seemed to gain strength from her proclamation. "We must give the lamb unto the serpent that the lamb may be born anew when the time comes. Gather your families and your belongings; the age of Kobol draws near to an end."

Cestus cleared his throat. He had known Pythia to preach in such circles for hours and the hour grew quite late. "My lady what would you have of me?" he prompted.

"Bring the lamb to the serpents lair! She is to greet them at the stone ring." Proclaimed the senile seeress, "She is an offering to them, to their greed, it is their greed that will doom them!"

"My Lady!" interrupted Cestus irritably, "Has the prophecy changed? I understood you to mean the lamb would be mine as my reward…"

"You and she will be joined in the endless dream before rebirth." Assured Pythia, "Wed by the serpent within you. Be wary though, shield your mind from its evils or it will stain you. The serpent taints the soul."

Cestus was no longer listening. He had gripped the drugged woman by her arm, and with several others began to march from the temple.

"Dreamless sleep?" asked his companion, "You are wed her like this?"

"It was clear as day." Said Cestus grinning. He took the opportunity to stroke Athena intimately, "Shes pliable this way." He said grinning lewdly, "You know I never considered meself the religious sort but I sure hit the jackpot here, that crazy old bat is worth listening to."

"Yet all I receive is "Spiritual enlightenment"." Grimaced his companion, "Where's the justice in any of this?"

"'Blessed are the meek'" grinned Cestus, "Fresh out of prison and there's Pythia giving me this little number. I've never seen this God she's always yapping about but he seems to have taken a shine to me. I like that last part, claimin' her with me serpent. That's rich." The two men chortled as a procession of robed acolytes began to stream out of the temple after them.

"Kree jaffa!" shouted Ra. He strode beside Anubis down their ranks to stand before the stargate. Placing an eye of Ra upon the pedestal before it he began to enter a gate address.

"Where are the other eyes?" asked Anubis idly

"That is none of your concern, my ambitious brother." Answered Ra balefully, "They are safe."

"You do not trust your own brother?" asked Anubis incredulously, "We have fought together for centuries, we defeated Osiris together."

"Yes mother and father." Mused Ra, "I think not Anubis. I have given you the plans for our great warship, I dare not give you the power source for it as well. The temptation would be…" he paused in his dialing, "an unfair burden to place upon you."

"What if Apophis were to find it?" demanded Anubis, "Or Yu, or heavens forbid, Baal?"

"I tell you it is safe." Declared Ra, "Enough of this, Kobol awaits us, where the gate builders fled. Together we will claim their lost city and its treasures. We will seize its power for our own and you and I brother will rule the stars."

"Then Let us go." Declared Anubis as Ra activated the last symbol. "Jaffa, kree!"

Twelve jaffa stepped forward and stomped through the gate six more formed up behind their Gods as they too strode forward.

***

A galaxy away they stepped into a well lit chamber. A woman was chained to a table in the center of the room, a man crouched over her staring up in surprise. Around them were scattered humans engaged in some sort of orgy.

"What foolishness is this?" demanded Ra incredulously, "Horus, take them all." He commanded as his soldiers spread out. There was a small degree of panic but Ra could smell a hallucinatory incense in the air and it was clear that all were in somewhat of a stupor. He approached the alter where the naked woman lay. Anubis came up beside him.

"A host for your daughter?" inquired Anubis disdainfully, then he peered closer, "There is something about her brother, I can sense it…"

"We will use her." Decided Ra, "And him." he snapped pointing at Cestus, "He will host your son." Clarified Ra to Anubis.

"What a pair they will make." Commented Anubis, "They can guide us through this land."

As a symbiote was placed on Athena's chest, Cestus was scarcely able to process what he saw. The creature chewed into her flesh, and a few moments later, Athena rose, her eyes glowing. Cestus was in too much of a daze to even resist the strong arms that lifted him next up onto the table.

"Behold your God." Whispered Anubis to the terrified man, "To bear him is an honor you could never earn. Know despair human, for your life is over."

The last thing Cestus felt was the cold slimy snake upon his skin, the last thing he saw were its beedy, malevolent eyes.

And he was gone.


	4. Invitations

Chapter 3

A hawk flew free over the desert, its feathers shining in the sun. It screamed its challenge to the wind as it spotted a rabbit below. Wheeling about, it adjusted its flight trajectory. It extended its claws as it began to fold its wings. It would drop like a stone and descend upon its unwitting prey, dimly the hawks tiny brain processed anticipation of the meal it was about to enjoy.

Suddenly a ball of fire flashed past the hawk incinerating its left wing, while at the same time a sharp rapport caused the rabbit below to jerk upright and fall to the earth.

"Teal'c!" demanded jack, "You missed the rabbit by a mile! What were you aiming for?" His question was punctuated by a flaming hawk crashing to the ground screeching in agony until it fell with small puff of sand and was silent.

"Touche." Said jack narrowing his eyes at the impassive Teal'c.

"Indeed." Came the inevitable reply.

"Honey we're home!" intoned O'neil as he dropped a dead rabbit on Carter's table. Beside it, Tealc dropped the smoking remains of the hawk. "He likes his well done." Said jack apologetically poking at the still sizzling meat."

"That is disgusting!" shrieked Carter, "I'm a vegetarian you know!"

"Relax." Soothed jack putting his arms on her shoulders, "Neither one ever knew what hit 'em. Besides what's the difference between chewing down on a giant beetle and enjoying some nice succulent rabbit meat?"

"I do not believe your animal will be large enough to be succulent." Stated Tealc.

"yeah, well anyway, how long until you fix the flux capacitor?" asked Jack

"I'm not sure I can." Said Carter she slid the lap top she'd been tinkering with away from the carcasses. A tangle of wires connected it to a glowing crystal taken from a staff weapon. "my counterpart had much more experience with this technology, the lap top itself runs very differently than what I am used to."

"I took care of the ships." Announced Daniel as he strode into the tent, "Oh yuck." He said holding a handkerchief to his mouth, "Who brought dinner?"

"Teal'c and jack are going a little stir crazy." Explained Sam, "But the lap top's working, so it shouldn't be long now." She collected the lap top and its power supply and carried them out of the tent and to the jumper beside which their accommodations had been set up.

"Well we'd better get a move on, there's a sandstorm coming." Said Daniel, "parked beside this dune, we could lose the ship forever if we aren't gone."

"Daniel can you get some of your lackeys to bring us firewood?" asked Jack, "The men want to eat. Actually, can you get your lackeys to bring a cook as well?"

"Jack I think I would be more helpful reading ancient and helping Sam repair the ship." Said Daniel.

"Ah." Said jack. He sighed, "Come on Teal'c lets go find some minions."

"Actually Jack we may need you to activate the ship as you have the gene required to use their technology." Said Daniel

"Make mine medium rare." Said jack sidestepping Tealc. With a dark look, Tealc headed towards the encampment.

***

"This one's mind is sophisticated." Complained the guide "My host is willful, and most irritating. He repeats the same passages from his primitive text over and over again."

"Conquer him." Spat Ra, "You are his God."

"Cease your whining." Added Anubis, "We are nearly to the city."

The two Gods and their jaffa entourage had travelled a dusty road towards a gleaming city. From what they could see as they descended the hill the city was in fact quite sophisticated. The temple and the demeanor of the guide had led them to expect the sort of primitive cultures they had developed across their own galaxies but there was clear evidence of technologies here. They were greeted shortly by a squad of soldiers, led by a smiling man with dark eyes.

"Greetings Travellers, my name is Count Iblis. " said Iblis. "And who might you be?"

"We are your…" started Anubis but Ra silenced him with a look.

"I am Ra, and this is my brother Anubis. We are explorers and traders." He said

"Where do you come from?" asked Iblis eyeing them carefully. He smiled disarmingly but Ra could feel the skin of his host crawling.

"From the world of Abydos." Lied Ra. "We have writings of the world of Kobol."

"We did not see a ship land." Observed Iblis

"We did not come in a ship." Stated Anubis, "We came through the chappa' ai, the stargate."

"Of course.' Said Iblis, "Forgive me, there are many such worlds with the star gates, but they do not often visit here."He smiled expansively, "well then travelers you must be weary. Welcome to our city, you will stay as my guests of course."

"May we confer a moment?" asked Ra

"Of course." Said Iblis "My men will wait nearby. Continue on your patrols gentlemen." he said graciously to the guards with him. Ra noted with some irritation that Iblis' men were taking up positions between his Jaffa and the road to the stargate.

"Anubis you fool." He hissed, eyes flashing, "We know nothing of this galaxy. By revealing that we came through the star gate you may have told Iblis where we come from!"

"Iblis is a pompous fool, a politician." Scoffed Anubis,

"That politician just placed his men between us and the star gate." Hissed Ra, "Twice we have used extra galactic symbols, one led to the cursed asgard, and another to the ori. You know we must be careful!"

"It is because of those races we have come here is it not?" Challenged Anubis, "An entire battalion of jaffa were blown to atoms to protect the secret of our origin from the ori, but they will come some day brother, and in the mean time those cursed Asgard interfere at every opportunity. We are Gods, we must take our place in the heavens!" he hissed loudly, "Not tread fearfully like old women."

"Watch your tongue brother." Shot back Ra venomously, "I am in charge here. You weren't arguing when I saved our dying race by finding the humans, you weren't arguing when I discovered the home world of the furlings. You will obey me now or so help me I will kill you on this spot, this Iblis is dangerous, and you will hold your tongue or you will doom us all."

Anubis nodded tersely and stalked off irritably. Ra waved Iblis over.

"We accept your invitation Count Iblis." Said Ra,

"Excellent." Stated Iblis smiling broadly. "Perhaps you will tell us more about where you came from and perhaps there is something I can do for you."

The thousand year old serpent within Ra did all it could to suppress the surge of fear coursing through his veins.


	5. Covenants

Chapter 4

As Daniel and Jack clustered around Sam, a display came up and Daniel whistled.

"Um if I'm reading this right, the time engine is functioning but the power regulator is fried." Said Daniel.

"I was afraid of something like that." Said Sam, "We might have been able to reroute anything else, but the time machine takes a lot of power, none of the other components of the ship can handle that load, and I have no idea how we could produce anything that could do it."

"What about the drones?" asked Daniel, "The Jack in my timeline used one to destroy an entire goa'ould mother ship, we speculated they can hold an enormous charge. Something would have been needed to regulate that right?"

"That's not really how a regulator works, that sounds like more of a capacitor." Said Sam giving him an odd look, "Besides we don't have any. The jumper appeared fully armed, but the drones were taken to Area 51 for study, we couldn't get them back before we left for Chulak."

"Great." Said Daniel deflating. "There would be plenty at the antartica station but its probably buried in ice." Sam opened her mouth to speak and then thought better of it.

Daniel paced around the room while jack sat down at the controls.

"We can't contact the asgard the Nox or the Tollan, because that might alter the timeline, but I suppose we could use the crystal skull in Belize to contact the giant Aztek Aliens…." Ranted Daniel

The screen before them lit up and a map of their surroundings appeared. A circle and an X appeared, and a path traced itself from the circle to the X.

"What'd I do?" demanded jack raising his hands.

Daniel peered at symbols which had appeared beneath the X. "Power coupling" he read. "That's where one of the gliders went down."

"The ship must be telling us how to repair itself." Surmised Sam, "Jack ask it what the coupling looks like."

As an image appeared on the monitor, Sam turned to the others. "This interface is much more intelligent that I imagined, its telling me how to repair the ship. All we need is the part."

"Well if we can repair the time drive I still see two problems." Replied Daniel, "First where do we go, it has to be on Earth, if we go anywhere before Stargate command sends our alternates back we will still undo the timeline as it is now. If we go to after the stargate program is active, we won't be able to gain access to the stargate, all of my team's GDO's have been destroyed."

"We would need to go to a point after the stargate is uncovered, but before it is in a secure installation." Answered Sam.

"What the hell?" demanded jack, "Why can't we just dig it up again? We buried the thing yesterday!"

"If the goa'uld are trying to reconnect with Earth, the only thing protecting us is that its buried." Said Daniel, "If we unbury who knows what could come through."

"We have to go to Giza 1937 and use the gate right after its uncovered." Said Carter.

"That won't work either." Said Daniel, "A dig of that size, a find of that kind, there were a lot of people around the gate at all times." Suddenly he snapped his fingers, "Except when it was transported back!" They put it on a non military freighter and shipped it to America, that's it!"

"We go back and use it while it's on the freighter." Said jack "The crew might have a problem with that."

"It makes sense though!" exclaimed Daniel. "The original stargate program records were mostly destroyed, but we do know that they had figured out it was a portal. They should never have been able to determine that unless someone dialed in, which is unlikely given that none of the system lords or other gate users would have known the gate was unburied, OR…" he paused and waggled a finger at Jack, "Or unless they saw someone dial out."

"Daniel, how do you know they knew what the gate was for?" asked Sam.

Daniel shrugged, "Another long story, but essentially an engineer named Ernest little field managed to manually dial the gate. He disappeared into it onto a world with a broken DHD and we found him some sixty years later."

"Ouch" commented Jack.

"Yes he wasn't in good shape." Replied Daniel, "But they had no DHD. They couldn't have seen someone dial out unless that person had a remote DHD."

"Such as the one on the jumper." Finished Sam. "So we went back and used the stargate, someone saw us, and that is how they figured out it was a portal. They sent someone through, he neer came back and they buried the project."

"So now we have to go back." Said Daniel, "Otherwise we won't follow Ernest to the planet where we discovered the meeting place of the ancients the Asgard the Nox and the Furlings. If that doesn't happen, things may turn out very, very differently."

"Is the whole reason for our existence to tie up all of the loose ends in yours?" demanded Jack irritated. "I'm tired of all this, I say screw it, lets go find a nice quiet place and stay out of the way."

"Jack, remember the Simpsons episode where Jomer goes back in time?" asked Daniel, "We can't stay here."

Jack glared at Danel for a few seconds before sighing.

"D'oh."

***

Ra was in discrete communication with his forces. He was aware that iblis has posted his own guards around the chappa'Ai. Before Iblis and his men had arrived however Ra had had the forethought to have a number of automatic sentries brought in. they waited out of site above the temple. Additional jaffa waited on the other side of the chappa' Ai prepared to come to their Gods Aid if need be and to conquer this world if possible.

"Our troops are ready." He told his first prime, "The drones are loaded with gases deadly to mere humans. If this Iblis makes any moves, we will crush him."

"Yes my Lord." Replied the Horus guard kneeling.

"Have your men keep their helmets down until the last second. Hide the true function off your staff weapons." Ordered Ra, "These people have ships, and arms, they will not be easily conquered. We may return through the chappa ' Ai. If need be we can return with a fleet of ha'taks enhanced by the eyes of Ra."

"As you will my Lord." Answered his first prime. The serpent in Ra idly marveled at the mans ability to dissemble. He wondered if he continued to prompt the man, would he strain his creativity?

"Ah, Guide." He said beaming, then scowling, "Guide, where is my brother?"

"Your brother is well." Said Iblis following the unfortunate Cestus. entering the chamber, "He and I have had a, discussion."

"Oh?" said Ra tensing.

"Yes." Said iblis, "I am quite aware of what you are Ra. Organisms in a host body, it is most ingenuous, your species has much promise." He paused, "You most of all."

"Jaffa Kree." Snapped Ra, he raised his communicator as he activated the personal shield around him. Suddenly the staves flew from his soldiers hands and the power on the shield failed. The ball floated gracefully to Iblis' palm.

"That won't be necessary." Said Iblis, "You see I have taken a liking to you Ra. You are disciplined, you are a planner. Your brother was a little too shall we say…. Impetuous."

"What have you done with him?" roared Iblis, "if you have harmed him I swear…"

"Loyal too, my dear Ra, you are simply full of admirable qualities." Beamed Iblis. "Your brother is alive." He stated, "Somewhat. I revealed to him my power and he was a bit shall we say, greedy." His face grew cold. "it seems he did not like my terms."

"What, have you done with him?" repeated Ra furiously, his eyes flashed and he began to size up this man before him, Iblis. His men were struggling to move, loyal to the last, and Ra believed he could see tension gathering in the corners of iblis' smiling eyes."You have your limits." He surmised, "Your parlor tricks cannot control all of my men for much longer."

"Perhaps not." Said iblis, "But I have an army outside this door. I need only say the word and they will rush inside and kill every last one of you. I do not want that Ra, I see in you an Ally. What I have to say is for your ears alone."

With that statement all of the jaffa in the room grabbed their stomachs and fell to the floor in agony, as their symbiotes were crushed. Ra's first prime went down as well, which gave Ra pause. His first prime had no symbiote, Iblis seemed not to notice, had he missed the man in all of the crowd?

"Still calculating aren't you, what a marvelous creature." Beamed the count as he strode over to Ra, "And such a youthful host. I feel him defy you even now, and you enjoy this battle of wills don't you."

Iblis became serious. "Ra listen to me. You came here believing this was a lost city of powerful technology. It is not. I have no baubles or trinkets for you to plunder. The technology of this world is on par with your own, it is not worth invading."

"You beg for your life." Scoffed Ra, "An insignificant mote in the eyes of your God."

"No, my egotistical little friend, " replied Iblis, "I lead you to this place, I left the writings for you to find, unlocked the star gate for your trip here, I wanted you to find me."

"I am no puppet!" raged Ra, "I am Ra! God of the Sun, strongest of the system lords, no human summons me!"

He circled around Ra.

"You cannot conceive of the journey you are about to begin Ra, you see I have chosen you as my student, my apprentice. I will teach you the nature of power. Yes you have a long way to go my serpent friend but I am worth the trip. I can show you power like you have never seen Ra. I will give you that power. You must do just one thing."

His eyes narrowed as he stared Ra in the face. "Worship me Ra. Call out my name and ask for my help. Your ancients sought ascension, I can give that to you, is that what you want? Your brother wished to rule the galaxies, I can give you that too! You've met the Ori Ra, you've seen the power that can come from a galaxy that bows before you that can be yours." Iblis grinned, "All you have to do is ask."

A Staff weapon fired and irritation froze iblis' face as he sank to the ground. Cursing Ra leaped to catch him.

"How, damn you, tell me how!" he shrieked. In desperation he produced a healing device and ran it over the massive wounds to the confusion of his first prime.

"I will give you my secrets Ra, and we will meet again." Chuckled iblis, "Agony and fear, you must let yourself succumb to them, and then… " he gasped, "Then call for me, and I will be there."

'I care not for that foolishness." Scoffed Ra, "Where is my brother?"

"Oh him." Iblis scowled. "I sent him back to another galaxy. "He smirked, "His dark passions will reignite a fire I have carefully stoked there and generate a conflagration that will consume a galaxy, he wanted power Ra, I have given it to him."

Ra glared at the creature for a long moment and finally gave a bark off laughter. "Then you avhe done my work for me you fool, he will consume an unsuspecting galaxy, even as I sweep my fist across this one, and when I the sufficient leverage, offered by two galaxies, I shall find him once again and remind him whom he serves."

Into the room burst an old woman and her followers. Outside shots were being fired and shouting could be heard.

"The apocalypse is come at last!" shrieked the hag, "Iblis has died and his monsters will be unleashed, we must all flee!"

Iblis coughed painfully. And heaved himself out of Ra's arms.

"Venomous woman." He spat, "Your meddling has vexed me to no end." Turning to Ra he said "Go my student, this body is dying. As we have spoken I have planted knowledge in your mind. Use it when you must. This world…" his face grew hard, "This world is cursed. Take my followers, they are the thirteenth tribe. Take them to the chappa Ai. I have released my other servants upon this land."

A panel in the wall slid aside and a robot stomped out, another behind it.

"By your command." It intoned. Ra's First prime whirled and shot it, but the next behind it showed a hail of blaster fire into him. It turned towards Ra, but Ra slapped his personal shield up. Energy rebounded in a shimmering display as Ra snatched up a zatnickatel and shot the monster. More poured out behind it, and in the confusion Pythia and her followers had run screaming from the room pursued by the cylons. As Ra left the room he heard Iblis cackling.

"All of this has happened before my dear, so it must happen again!"

***

***

A galaxy away a Anubis stepped forward as the Stargate disengaged behind him. A dark figure awaited him and before him hundreds of thousands of creatures of a species he had never seen before on their knees with their heads bowed in supplication. Before him stood a man cloaked in darkness who grinned at Ra's arrival.

"Greetings, servant of Iblis." Spoke the figure before him, "The force is strong in you, soon you will know the power of the dark side."


	6. Timelines

Chapter 5

Sinking and heaving, the ocean moved beneath the moonlight. Across this vastness, insects trundled silently, few and far between. Those aboard these constructions would not view them as such but to the vastness of the ocean they were but motes, but on this particular night as the world turned in sleep one particular mote drew attention.

The staccato of gunfire and the shouting of voices erupted from one such vessel as it plowed through the turbulent ocean. Then there was a great whoosh, and all was silent. On this tiny metal ship on a backwater planet the fate of a galaxy had just been decided. The world turned once more and was none the wiser, but, these events had not gone entirely unnoticed.

Sheba stood beside the being known as Oma Desalla.

"Astounding." Murmured Oma,

"Which astounds you? The origin of those jaffa, the man who just killed them all or the fact that Starbuck knew something like this would happen." Asked Sheba, "In his own way Starbuck was quite a tactician in his own right."

"So certain was he that Iblis orchestrated the Stargate's burial, he asked that his energy be placed within it." Replied Oma, "he clearly intended to visit the source of Iblis' mischief yet even he could have never guessed it would lead to an alternate future."

"It is actually a tangentental loop." Stated Sheba, "The method of time travel utilizing a stargate does not leave this quantum reality."

"That one does." Stated Oma raising her eyes to where a faint shimmering object could be seen descending through the clouds. "Though it does not utilize a stargate as such."

"What are they doing here?" wondered Sheba innocently.

"perhaps someone provided a flash of insight." Replied Oma testily, then reassuringly, "No I won't reveal you to the council, their obstinate stance on lower beings is no longer one I support."

"You cannot trust Anubis." Replied Sheba warningly, "he is a Goa'uld, most likely a servant of Iblis."

"Absurd." Snapped Oma, "He has been through much in his travels he is a battered and broken soul, and he is open to my teachings. He deserves his redemption Sheba."

"Do you really believe that?" challenged Sheba, "How could he and his brother have broken the lockout on Kobol the very day this Stargate was buried? The jaffa who returned tell tales of the fall of Kobol as orchestrated by Iblis."

"Ra destroyed that stargate." Replied Oma, "And has never attempted to unlock any other as far as we know. A willing servant would not fear his master so."

"Why would Ra fear iblis?" asked Sheba shrewdly, "If he is as reformed as you all feel he is?"

"We have no way of knowing what transpired on Kobol." Answered Oma stiffly, "We have been friends for a long time Sheba, butt you push too hard on this, there is simply no hard evidence that Iblis ever broke his covenant with us. Perhaps the humans will resume stargate travel and the answers you seek can be uncovered at last, but at present it is impossible, the stargate carries barely enough of a charge to receive an incoming wormhole, it certainly cannot generate an intergalactic one, and I fear it will be quite some time before the humans determine how to charge it adequately without a DHD or a ZPM."

"Starbuck will ferret it out." Answered Sheba stoutly, "Whatever transpired to cause those jaffa and that Goa'uld to come here, he's in the middle of it now, and most assuredly he will get to the bottom of it."

"be that as it may," Replied Oma, "I must return to Keb, where Anubis awaits, an Asgard loki will visit this world shortly if you wish to accompany me."

"I appreciate the offer." Replied Sheba, but I think I have my own ride to catch."

*******

"Who are you? Demanded Joseph Mitchell.

"I'm a friend of the family." Said Cameron, "Maybe even a distant relative." He smiled beneath his beard. Joseph peered more intently at him and then shook his head. There was certainly a resemblance.

"who were those people? What is this thing?" Demanded Joseph, "What the hell happened to my ship?" He shouted enraged. Cameron was searching for something amidst the bodies on the ship. He found it on the body of one of them and pocketed it.

"Hey! Stop that, What are you doing?" demanded joseph.

"It's a long story joseph." Said Cameron, "Involving time travel and aliens and alternate universes. But believe you me, this is one pandora's box you don't want to open. This device has got to make it to America. No one must know that I am here and so I am going to have to take a little trip." Vaulting onto the platform left by the aliens he placed a device onto the great stone ring. Pressing a few keys on the device it began to glow and the stone ring began to light up.

As Cameron dialed, he caught a glimpse of the turbulent sea tossing in the moonlight. Suddenl the air shimmered, and as Cameron paused in shock, a jumper appeared before him, piloted by none other than jack Sam and Teal'c. Spinning in place, the door dropped open and Teal'c Advanced. Cameron noted this Tealc was younger than he remembered and still wore the battle armor of Apophis. Behind him was Daniel Jackson. Cameron choked up at the sight of his three friends thought long dead.

"Teal'c!" he roared joyfully, "Daniel! Way to bring back the band!"

Daniel Cocked his head. "Cameron? Cameron Mitchell? What are you doing in 1937?"

***

"So you are an alternate Daniel Jackson from three years ago." Said Cameron, "And you," he said pointing at the other three, "Are from an entirely different timeline. Sweet jesus." He sat down on the Jumper. The Jumper was hovering inside the cargo bay which Cameron's Grandfather had grudgingly declared off-limits to the rest of the crew. Cloaked as it was none had seen the jumper but Joseph Mitchell.

"The last time I saw you, you were in a hospital bed recovering from a 302 crash." Replied Daniel. "But if the story you gave us is true, than you are displaced as well. By correcting the timeline you negated your place in it."

"Did we screw things up by getting involved?" demanded Jack, "This blows your whole theory out of the water Daniel, they saw Cameron go through the gate not us."

"Grandpa Joe can still report that the gate activated and aliens came out of it." Said Cameron, "We can go our merry way and he won't tell a soul."

"We can leave the bodies." Suggested Daniel, "Several were recovered at the dig site anyway, and nothing was ever figured out from them."

"Yeah except these are a little more fresh.' Argued Cameron, "better just to drop them into the ocean."

Suddenly the console in front of jack began to ping. Symbols appeared in ancient. "Oh for crying out loud!" exploded jack, "Speak English already. The words faded and were replaced with English letters that read very clearly "Unknown spaceship detected."

Jack blined. "That was easy. Why didn't we do that before?"

Cameron shrugged, "Even I didn't know it could do that. The Atlantis team never tried it, they use these all the time."

"Could that ship have been sent By Ba'al?" demanded Daniel, "We have to check it out." he looked at Jack for an objection.

"I'm not sure exactly where ba'al came from." Admitted Cameron, "he could have jumped back in time to any stargate and come here with his forces or he could have jumped directly here."

"Well what the hell??" demanded Jack, "We came here to use the Stargate to avoid messing up the timeline and get off Earth, now we're NOT going to use it?"

"If this ship is sent by Ba'al the timeline will be compromised if we DON'T intervene." Replied Daniel.

"We're damned if we do and damned if we don't?" replied jack incredulously. "Terrific."

"Maybe some of us should go through the gate and some of us should check out the ship." Suggested Sam nervously. The others looked at her in surprise.

"Well Daniel and I aren't soldiers." She said defensively, "We'd just get in the way."

"Um excuse me." Said Cameron, "We have no idea what's up there. For all we know Thor is dropping by for a peepshow."

"We may need your technical background." Said Daniel gently, "And I may need to translate any number of languages. Teal'c and Jack are invaluable if we get into trouble and Cameron…" Daniel Faltered. "Well Cameron doesn't have to go." He conceded. "He'll probably get in a fight…"

"Hey!" objected Cameron, "I know Jaffa martial arts I'm a pilot, I have years of gate experience…"

"Eh" said Jack non-committed, "I suppose you could be sort of a pinch hitter if one of us is otherwise occupied, just to sort of keep things moving…."

"We need to make this decision." Pressed Daniel, "Are we going through the gate or are we checking out the ship."

"When choosing between a danger before you, and a danger that may happen if you turn away," said Teal'c, "it is better to move forward and meet the enemy you can see."

"Alright campers buckle up." Declared jack, "We're going to space."

"The signal is originating from the oort cloud on the edge of the solar system." Declared Sa, scrutinizing the controls, "Is it alright if I lie down in the back?" jack eyed her carefully.

There was an awkward silence and then Daniel spoke up.

"Actually I could probably use a nap too if you guys don't need me, I'll take the other bench." He and Sam moved to wards the back.

"I'm just saying, you're not as specialized." Explained jack as Daniel rose and followed Sam into the back chamber of the jumper, "It's almost like you were sort of an amalgamation of the rest of us that was thrown together at the last minute and made to look legit…"

"hey I have been an integral part of the stargate program for a long time." Objected Cameron, "I was there with SG-1 the whole time just behind the scenes, aw come on why am I even arguing with a time clone…."

The door snapped shut cutting them off. Daniel sat on a bench opposite Sam as she picked at the time drive that dominated the chamber.

"Sam are you all right?" he asked gently. She looked up and her ccompsure cracked a little.

"I'm not the Sam you think I am you know." She replied, "I'm not a mbig shot airforce colonel space warrior."

"I know." Conceded Dniel, "I see so much of her in you, but you've lived very different lives. Still I'm glad your with us, your just as brilliant as she is, maybe a little more so." Sam looked up surprised.

"yeah think about it, she spent a lot of time working her way up in the military taking combat training leadership, piloting, you're a pure scientist," Daniel said encouragingly.

"Research assistant." She grumbled

Daniel exhaled slowly. "Oh, well so what? That means your used to doing the leg work without taking the credit!" that got a chuckle from her and Daniel kicked his feet up and spread himself on the bench, pulling his hat over his face. Through the door he could still hear bickering which continued until he heard Teal'c voice thundering "be silent!"


	7. Cain's hammer

Chapter 6

"Space. The final frontier." Intoned O'neill

"That gets funnier very ten minutes." Observed Daniel from the back.

"Indeed."

"Settle down kids, don't make me turn this puddle jumper around." Responded O'neill. "Honey can you quiet the kids down i think one of them needs to be changed."

"We are coming up on the oort cloud now." Said Sam

"The big purply cloudy thing?" asked Jack, she nodded. The jumper sped onwards.

"Cam you've been awfully quiet." Commented Daniel.

"it's just a lot to take in." said Mitchell, "Even for SG-1. All of you were killed in my timeline. Some of you twice." He said casting a glance at Jack up in the front. "I spent amost a decade living out of my time so that i could stop that from happening. Now that I've done it i guess I don't really know what to do with myself. And there you are." He said gesturing to include everyone. "SG-1, not as I knew you, but in your hey dey. The Jack in my time was softer, more interested in eating Cake. His time with SG-1 had done a lot for giving him a purpose again. Teal'c was much warmer, more spiritual, no longer as alien, and Sam, well, lets just say this Sam is bright eyed and bushy tailed."

"I know what you mean." Agreed Jackson, "In a lot of ways they remind me of my team when we were just starting out. The galaxy was so big back then. Now…." His voice trailed off as he looked down at the floor.

"I guess I was a left over too. Building a resistance movement planning to overthrow the Goa'uld, remembering my fallen friends."

`"Well Jackson, the galaxy is new again." Said Cameron rising, "And I for one, am glad to have you back, still, I miss Vala, General Landry, hell even Woolsey." At Daniel's look he said "It was my world, those were good times, they will never come again."

"The galaxy is vast." Corrected Jackson, "And we are so very small."

"Does anyone else have to use the bathroom?" Inturrupted jack from the front cabin.. Four heads nodded in unison. "Kind of a design flaw don't you think?" asked O'neill mildly."

"I see something!" said Sam excitedly, before them a massive shape was visible.

"The readings say its over a mile long." Observed Daniel, "Not much power though it must be dormant."

"It's a real live spaceship!" exclaimed Sam clapping her hands. Cameron came to the front and leaned over to see out the window.

"Well we're IN a spaceship." Pointed out Daniel, "Seen one, seen 'em all."

"Don't mind my jaded friend Mr. Jackson, he has seen, hijacked and crashed many a spaceship in his day." Said Cameron, "I know what you mean Sam." He said patting a hand on her shoulder."

"I wish I could see through these clouds better." Said jack. On the window before them the clouds seem to vanish immediately and before them was plainly visible a bulky grey shape with two massive nacelles attached.

"Sweet." Said Jack

"The computer must have corrected for the visual interference." Said Carter

"I think those are landing bays." Said Daniel, "The design is similar to the Prometheuss."

"It looks more like the Daedalous." Commented Cameron rom the back, "We had a few more of them by the time i left." He rose and joined those in the front staring over sam's shoulder.

"Is it possible this ship is as displaced as us?" asked Sam,"Wait look at that!" she exclaimed, pointing to one of the massive nacelles. As she touched the window, the jumper obligingly highlighted and magnified the area, to clearly display English text.

"Pegasus?" Read Cameron, "It's an earth ship?"

"Possibly." Said Daniel, "It's larger than anything we built in our time, and remember the ancients returning from Atlantis heavily influenced greek culture, upon which the English written language is derived. On the other hand it could be just as time displaced as we are. We'll have to go on board if we want to get any answers."

"I don't see any space suits." Observed Cameron

Jack slapped his head. "We don't have space suits? Daniel what if this thing's dead in space!"

"It's a risk we have to take!" said Daniel, "Look we can extend the Jumpers shields around whatever we need to get the parts we need. We just need to see whats out here and if we can use it."

"Fine." Grumbled Jack. "There better be a bathroom or I'm leaving my calling card behind.."

Daniel returned to the aft compartment and sat on the bench watching zach with an amused experession. He realized Teal'c was eyeing him curiously.

"it's like old times." He said by way of explanation.

Jack maneuvered the puddle jumper towards the landing bay, and to their surprise as they entered, lights began to come on all over the landing bay. After deciphering the radings for a moment, Daniel said

"Amazing, the atmosphere mixture is Earth normal, the gravity is very high though."

"I believe I can endure it." Stated Tealc. "My symbiote will sustain me."

"There should be controls in the landing bay to control the gravity." Said Daniel, if you take a radio I'm sure we can talk you through it."

"Very well." Said Tealc rising. They opened the door to the jumper. Upon leaving the cabin, Tealc Grunted, and he began to move much more slowly. With heavy steps he made his way towards a predominant bank of instruments.

"These indicators correspond to the numbers you have given me." He reported over the radio. "I am attempting to adjust them."

He sighed in relief as the gravity began to reduce itself, and as it reached normal jack sprang out of the puddle jumper jauntily., Weapon ready.

"Thanks for the assist T, My I do feel springy."

Teacl glanced for a long moment at the dial and then back at O'neill and then shook his head.

"Daniel check out that computer, Cameron see if you can help. Teal'c stay with them, Sam lets take a gander at these sweet space fighters!" ordered jack motioning towards a pair of tri winged aircraft.

"You know i am a pilot." Said Cameron quietly to Daniel, I could probably…" Daniel made a slashing motion as O'neill and Carter walked off.

"Actually Jack I think that larger one might be more helpful." suggested Sam pointing to an ungainly looking shuttle.

Jack stared at the Shuttle and back at the Vipers, then back at the shuttle.

"Oh we are NOT getting a minivan!" he protested.

"Yeah." Said Cameron, "Maybe not."

"Indeed." Said Teal'c.

"You know Teal'c, you say that a LOT." Said Cameron at which Teal'c raised an eyebrow. "Really?" he sounded surprised, "I had not noticed."

***

Galaxies away an old man straightened and looked about. He saw his fields, the grapevines spreading off into the distance. The sun shone brightly and yet something wa amiss.

"Apollo!" he barked, "I know your out there, show yourself!"

After a moment a man faded into existence. In contrast to the craggy wizened man squinting before him, Apollo was a youthful athletic man with unblemished complexion and shoulder length hair. He wore a tan uniform and a brown jacket.

"Sorry sir." Apologized Apollo, "I know you don't like to be startled.

"Damn straight." Asserted the man, "I see you're in uniform once more."

"The cylons are about to rebel." Replied Apollo, "The machinations of Iblis have entered their next phase, There is only one place it can inevitably lead."

"To ruin." Spat the old man, "Death and war. Always back to war." He muttered then he looked back at Apollo once more a wicked gleam in his eyes, "But we are warriors. Not philosophers and pacifist, we are warriors. This time the war will be joined, and that serpent iblis will be ground out forever. "

"The oracle has said you must be our general, when the time is right." Replied Apollo, "I suppose that is why there was so much objection when you returned to this plane with your wife, but who can oppose commander Cain." He grinned ruefully.

"I have a right to grow old." Snapped Cain, "If my timing is inconvenient then so be it, the galaxy will have to march on without me. Twice now Apollo I have grown old twice; with no retirement, no rest for the wear. What more can they ask of me? Is it the duty of old soldiers to fight a younger man's war?"

"Not just any war, oh no, I have already fought and lost this war," he gestured to the heavens, " and this is just the opening salvo, The prelude to something greater, I doubt very much I will be around then."

"We can't move openly now, we must bide our time and build our strength."

"…And let these lambs go to the slaughter?" demanded the old man, "Never! We give no ground to the enemy."

"It will be a tragedy." Acknowledged Apollo, "They will pray to us, pray to me!" he now showed the anguish on his face, "Yet I must remain silent." He sighed and the old man rested an arm upon te shoulders of a God.

"Apollo, my son." He began.

"Where does one get the strength?" asked Apollo, "We were never meant to live this way Cain, how does Iblis do it? Living for eons, manipulating whole civilizations, I have molded these people for millennia to give them a chance against him, to gain back what was lost, and for what? A primitive mockery of our civilization? They have none of the grandeur, none of the science…."

"They have heart." Said Cain stoutly, "Grit, you can't keep these people down, you'll see! The cylons they face are not worth the scrap metal their made of. You raised these people Apollo, of course you don't want them to suffer but…" he sighed, "Its letting them grow up, jump out of the nest, you have to take the chance that they will fall to allow them to reach their potential. As for your own life… well I don't have any answers." He said, "I couldn't endure it half as well as you did, that's why I settled down. Its war without end out there." He waved distractedly at the sky, "Down here theres a little peace, a little honesty. I know it's a fleeting moment, an illusion, but I just can't endure Apollo, I'm sick of a war we can't win."

"The battle is not yet lost." Replied Apollo. "Join us father, help us prepare for the true battle ahead. Help me, I can't do this alone anymore."

"I can't. not now." Snapped the old man, "I have duties here, a family, a daughter." his expression softened,

"How is Joseph?"

"He still won't speak to me." Replied Cain with a grin, "He's got my stubbornness. When Cassie lay dying and we told him who we were, who we really were, he demanded that I save her. He never accepted that I gave that all up. He has a family of his own now, my grandson's a viper pilot." He added proudly. His expression soured. "Joseph never let me see him. He's so stubborn."

"You can't let them go." Acknowledged Apollo, Sheba misses you terribly."

"Tell her that her father misses her." Said the man, "Ah Apollo I ow did this come to be? Cassiopeia and I were finally reunited. We were ascended, all powerful, and we gave it up for what, a moment of passion?"

"Not passion," admonished Apollo, "Love. Cassie always wanted a family, and you decided it was time to give it to her, she should never have ascended, she was never happy like this." He gestured to himself.

"Are you?" asked Cain

" Not anymore." Said Apollo, "The idea of enlightenment, of wisdom, it called to me. Before my ascension I had so many questions, so many doubts. Ascension has brought me no peace. "

"Iblis is to blame." Snapped Cain, "We topple him, once and for all, and the galaxy can go its own way in peace, without his machinations."

"You sound like a man prepared to help." Teased Apollo, "A general ready to lead."

"Oh I'll lead your armies." Promised Cain, "When the time is right. First I must see my family through this crisis, whether they want my help or not." He gestured to the sky, "I owe Cassie that much."

"They can endure this war." Said Apollo, "but the next one will bring them to the breaking point."

"They will survive." Declared Cain, "If I have anything to say about it."


	8. There but for the grace of evil

Chapter 7

"Greetings!" chirped a well modulated female voice, startling Daniel. Tealc tightened his grip on his staff and then relaxed. "My name is Cora. I will be your interface unit. Welcome to the Pegasus."

"Thank you." Answered Daniel awkwardly as jack shuffled over from the puddle jumper."

"Your craft indicates you are of Altairan origin." Said Cora pleasantly, "have your people returned to this galaxy?"

"Ah no." said Daniel, "Its complicated. "Who are the altairans?

"The ancients Daniel." Answered Cameron coming to stand beside him. "There's a secret room we discover on Earth that gives a little more of their back-story. They left from a distant galaxy a very long time ago, after a bit of an ideological dispute. Seems they prefer free will and rational thought to unwavering faith and spirituality, so they left their galaxy and started over here. Than the plague came and they either ascended or died."

"Essentially correct." Agreed the computer, "Pegasus arrived in this system seeking a refugee fleet that contained the last survivors of the twelve colonies of kobol. According to ancient records, a thirteenth tribe had long ago left Kobol during a global catastrophe which precipitated the founding of the twelve colonies. The thirteenth tribe identified their destination as a planet called Earth." Explained the computer." We originally intended to join the battlestar Galactica and the refugee fleet accompanying her, unfortunately when we arrived at Earth it was devoid of any significantly advanced civilization. This galaxy was embroiled in a conflict between powers that were beyond our capabilities. When biogenic weapons were discovered wiping out whole ecosystems. It was clear that this was an unsafe place to stop, however this ship lacked suitable supplies to continue and supported only a skeleton crew. Commander Cain ordered the crew to abandon ship and join the population off an Altairan city ship. "

"The crew went to Atlantis." Surmised Daniel "And the ship remained here. You mentioned a refugee fleet? Where are your people originally from? Why were they refugees?"

"Though Kobol was believed to have been the birthplace of humanity it was later disclosed that an Altaran city ship Olympus was most likely responsible for colonizing kobol. "Explained the computer, "Following a cataclysm on Kobol triggered by solar flares from its dying sun, the thirteen colonies evacuated the system, and the twelve colonies were founded among several nearby star systems. Our nations were destroyed in a sneak attack by a neighboring and very hostile race. "Explained the computer. "Two battlestars were known to have survived, the Pegasus and the Galactica. Several hundred thousand refugees survived and the Commander of the galactic ordered all who were able to evacuate the colonies before the cylons returned to complete the extermination of all mankind."

Mitchell whistled, Daniel shushed him, "About how long ago was this?" asked Daniel

"The colonies were destroyed approximately nine million solar cycles ago." Stated the computer

Daniel turned to Mitchell. "These must have come here during the plague that wiped out the ancients. The city of Atlantis left about nine million years ago to seed the Pegasus galaxy."

"We had information that the plague was caused by beings known as the Ori." Murmured Cameron thoughtfully.

"The galaxy as such was in extreme chaos when we arrived." Commented Cora, "Several major powers were engaged in hostilities, which contributed to the destabilization off the ancient civilizations."

"That thing seems to happen a lot." Said Mitchell, "Refugees fleeing Eveel that sort of thing."

"All of this has happened before, all of it will happen again." Supplied Cora helpfully,

***

Shivering against the chill, Starbuck awoke on a cold floor in a dark room. The reason for his chill became immediately apparent when he reached down.

"WHAT THE FRAK?" he thundered gesticulating at the sky above him, "I KNOW I ascended with my clothes on you daggit humping imbeciles! Your just sore because I out thought you, that's the downside to free will you see, some of us are better at it than others! You have your little chuckle but we'll see whose laughing when…" he looked about himself. "Where am I anyway? I half expected a battalion of cylons or jaffa." Still naked he crept carefully along a catwalk over a yawning abyss. A Stargate stood behind him, another platform held a set of ring transports, and a third held a computer station. Making his way to the station he huddled behind it and tapped out a few keys.

"The lights are on but nobody's home." He muttered calling up a usage history, "Hmm looks like a form of Goa'uld, that's not very promising, Oh hoh! Time travel? You crafty little snakes," he looked about him, he punched a command into the computer and squinted at what it said. "Ba'al? Where do you guys come up with… not very smart taking all your men with you Ba'al, a little adjustment to the shield and that little trip to Earth of yours is a one way one. Now since your not using that little palace above, lets see if you have anything my size." Shuffling across the catwalk he waited as rings rose up around him and he vanished in a column of light.

***

"Glad you could join us." Commented Daniel dryly as jack and very rumpled looking Sam exited the shuttle. Jack had a large piece of machinery stowed under his arm. Sam turned pink at the comment.

"Hey we wanted to be thorough." Said jack defensively. "We have the part, Sam thinks it will work."

"Well we've come up with some pretty interesting stuff here jack." Said Daniel. "I know you are new to this but a lot of what we did as a team in my timeline was look for technology we could use to defend Earth. I'd say we found some."

"Except we're several decades ahead of schedule?" said Jack sarcastically.

"Jack this was left for us to find. " said Daniel. "There's an artificial intelligence giving us a history of this ship. It isn't from Earth of the future or past or any earth at all, its from a colony of ancients."

"Do they want it back?" asked jack pointedly looking around the deserted hanger deck.

"Not particularly, they have moved on to other galaxies." Said Daniel, "There is a lot of technology we could bring back to aid in the struggle against the Goa'uld."

"Yes. We can bring this ship back to the future, so that yet another copy of us can be made." Said Jack drolly. "I think its getting a little crowded around here actually."

"Well we can't go back to our own time if we are already there." Said Daniel resolutely. "Maybe we could leave the ship though."

"And go where?" asked Jack incredulously, "The future?"

"We had a couple of experiences with alternate copies in my time." Submitted Cameron, "Distance reduces those quantum tremor things we could go to the Pegasus galaxy." He paused and looked at Sam apologetically "Except you Sam, you're running things there."

"Sam's a general?" asked Daniel surprised, "Way to go Sam!"

"Well she's still a colonel, and last I heard they were putting Woolsey in charge but how long could that last." Said Cameron scratching his head.

"This discussion isn't getting us anywhere." Said Sam irritably, earning a sharp look from Daniel, "Anyway the time engine in the jumper doesn't have enough power to extend its effects beyond the radius of the jumper, it wasn't designed to."

"I believe I may be of assistance in that regard." Said Cora, "While this battle star is primarily mechanically driven, comprised only of minimal non networked computers, your jumper seems quite integrated. If I were permitted access I could assess the crafts full capabilities."

"How would you do that?" asked Cameron suspiciously.

"A simple auditory interface should suffice for the moment, I would need to be given authorization, a duty the pilot can perform."

Jack rolled his eyes and headed towards the jumper. A few moment later he emerged and said "I told it to let Cora talk to it." He said

"Jack?" demanded Daniel, "Was that wise? "

"Sure I trust her. She's got a nice voice," answered Jack easily. Hey!" he exclaimed pointing, I know those symbols." He pointed to the silhouette of a man paint on one door and a woman painted on the other. "Talk amongst yourselves, I'll be back."

Cameron glanced at Teal'c. Teal'c glanced back. Both followed O'neil to the bathroom hurredly.

Daniel stood aghast and turned to look at Sam.

"He's out of his mind." He declared as Cora began to emit a series of beeps and clicks. As the jumper replied in kind Sam shrugged nervously and hurried to follow the others. Daniel slouched against the console crossing arms. He shifted uncomfortably and after a moment moved to follow the others.

"Well I think we've spent enough time here," said Jack finishing lamely, "In this time."

"Your telling me!" said Cameron Jauntily, "Swing dancing, the jitterbug and gangstas, its been a long coupla years."

Daniel looked at him appraisingly, "You have quite a way with words Cameron."

"Yeah I hit my head in the 302 crash, don't want to think about it." Replied Cameron good naturedly. Cameron Jack and Daniel were in the command center, Sam and Teal'c were in the engine room.


	9. A matter of space

Chapter 8

"Sam you all set down there?" radioed Jackson.

"Nearly ready." Said Sam, "we're testing the last module now."

Upon interfacing with the jumper, Cora had managed to design an interface module that could be connected to the ship's internal comm. system. Over the last several days Sam had worked hard in the battlestar's machine shop to produce these devices and the others had helped in setting them up in key positions throughout the ship. Cora had begun running a series of readiness checks and had reported that the battlestar had weathered the years well, remaining largely functional. Cora had been able to shed some light on the function of the 'Time engine" as Cameron called it.

"A localized displacement field is propagated through the Jumper's own inertial compensation/artificial gravity field." She had disclosed, and as jack and wandered off muttering, Sam had leaned in closer, fascinated. "The field generated by the jumper is fundamentally similar to the system used by the Pegasus to accelerate past light speed. If additional power is channeled into the time engine it can generate a charge that can encompass the whole of the Pegasus. With proper calculations this charge will displace the Pegasus out of this time stream and permit reversion at a different point."

"We can take the ship with us?" asked Sam,

"So it would seem." Answered Cora, "Additionally with a greater understanding of the time travel principles involved I can discount any possibility of quantum tremors upon returning to your time period of origin. This method of time travel does not include travel outside of your quantum reality. Traveling back along the timeline allowed you to alter its outcome while preserving the secondary chain of events that lead to your own existence."

"can we return to our own timelines?" asked Daniel.

"Negative. At the point of each divergence a separate quantum reality was formed to accommodate necessary alterations." Explained Cora to her rapt audience. "However as stated, you were the instigators of that occurrence. As you were the cause, your existence originates before the minute quantum shift."

Daniel blinked, and turned to Sam. Sam shrugged.

"I don't know." She said, "It sounds plausible enough but its all techno babble to me right now."

Upon installing the last of the networking modules Sam had returned with Teal'c to the command center to join the others.

"The module is transmitting adequately." Reported Cora, "beginning software update."

"This is the last of them." said Daniel, "We should be able to run the ship from here." he stated.

"I thought that was what this room was for?" said Cameron, "Maybe I'm being obtuse but couldn't they already run the ship from the command center?"

"Not as such no." said Daniel, "They could monitor much of what went on, and send orders, but there was always a guy on the other side making sure it happened. This civilization had a major aversion to networked computers, and over centralization."

"So in three days we just undid all of that?" asked Cameron

"We have to." Replied Sam, "We can't run a ship like this ourselves, besides these cylons of theirs are long gone, what are the chances we will encounter ANOTHER race of cyber hackers?"

Cameron winced and Daniel drove his face into his palm. Sam looked from one to the other.

"What? What did I say?" She asked nonplussed.

"if you roll with SG-1 you can't tempt fate!" Explained Cameron, "We do it enough already."

Sam opened her mouth to argue the point and closed it after considering.

"I think we're ready to try the time drive." She said.

"it is strongly advised that before testing the experimental time drive, we test the drive, weapons and defensive systems first." Suggested Cora

"if the future isn't so great we want to be ready to defend ourselves." Said Cameron.

"I have rerouted weapons functions for the engines to the forward station." Explained Cora bringing up a graphic of the command center, "To the left are weapons, to the right are sensors and communication, the back stations are damage control and system status, and finally life support."

Jack was already sitting at the pilots station, Daniel settled into the sensors and communication station. Sam took damage control, and Cameron and Teal'c made a mildly competitive bee line for weapons control. Cameron won by a nose but was removed from the seat by the scruff of his neck. He slunk over to life support and poked it disinterestedly until Cora rerouted point defense systems to his console.

"Alright lets see how she handles." Said jack as the Pegasus began to move through the oort cloud.

***

"Clever Iblis clever." Muttered Starbuck as an error message came up on his screen. Clothed now in an elegant black tunic, with matching pants and boots, he wore a Zatnickatell at his side. "So Ra's homeworld is no more eh? I guess that means there's no way to Cygnus from this galaxy, unless I want to chance a trip to Pegasus. I suppose I could go back in time to before you made your move, but if you can cheat so can I. A little insight on the future of this little game my clue me in to your next move."

He thought to himself for a moment, and then muttered, "Adama would know, maybe its time for a little trip to Dagobah." Glancing at his bundle of supplies, recently lifted from ba'al's former residence, he began to enter a new address into the stargate. As he sprinted towards the gate he did not see that on the console behind him a red light had begun to blink.

***

"The greater extent of control that i have over artificial gravity, inertial compensation and engine output allows for a higher degree of maneuverability than previously possible." Observed Cora, as the ship careened around the cloud, "However there are still structural limitations. The Pegasus was not designed to be nimble."

Tealc and Cameron took pot shots at orbital material until Sam said,

"I think that's probably enough, we should limit our interaction with this environment until we're back in our own timeline."

"Very well." Said Cora, "Perhaps we should engage the time drive and attempt a jump to your timeframe o origin."

"Make it so." Intoned O'Neil.

Deep in the bowels of the ship the newly installed time engine pulsed. The Tylium engines around it roared, straining to provide additional power, but as the energy surged through the regulartor something went wrong, feedback. Oblivious to its crew the Pegasus phased out of the timestream, the feedback caused the engine's to misfire. The stardrive pulsed once and as the Pegasus returned to normal space, its occupants became aware that something was wrong. Battle raged around them, as fighters swooped and dove around great warships, that spit fire as their hulls breached.

"Cora!" roared O'neill, "What the hell is going on?"

"It appears that feedback from the time drive caused the engines to misfire, our remaining tylium stores have been depleted but 80 percent, we are now below on fourth of capacity."

"I hate to interrupt but it looks like we arrived in the middle of a war!" Shouted Cameron. Jack hastily began to maneuver the Pegasus away from the massive warships dueling before them. The Pegasus began to lumber clumsily away from where scores of tiny fighters peppered larger triangular hulled ships even as the larger craft dealt horrifc blows to one another.

"Anybody have any idea who these guys are?" demanded O'neill glancing at Teal'c and then at Daniel.

"These craft are unfamiliar to me." Replied Teal'c "But they appear quite formidable, they maneuver most excellently, and their firepower is more formidable than any hatak I have ever seen."

"The donuts are getting their asses kicked by the triangle ships." Observed jack as he worked his controls."

"Those look like star destroyers." Commented Cameron, and at his comment Daniel whirled around.

"I thought so too." He replied seriously, "Like the ones in attack of the Clones?"

"Acclimator class." Replied Cameron with a grin, than his face fell, "Wait you don't think…"

"Those are Trade Federation battleships." Replied Jackson, "We must be in an alternate reality."

"What are you two blathering about?" Demanded Jack, "Sam? Are they making any sense?"

"Its possible that we crossed into an alternate reality," answered Sam, still trying to wrap her head around what was happening, "We have no real idea how the engines of the Pegasus work and my counterpart had only begun to theorize how the time drive worked."

"I am quite familiar with colonial ftl technology and my preliminary study of the Time engine does not suggest interaction on a Quantum level." Interjected Cora flatly.

"Jack, Star wars!" Exclaimed Daniel, "Its pretty much your favorite movie?"

"Doesn't ring a bell." Replied Jack, "At the moment I couldn't care less about some movie. It looks like we have attracted attention. Do you two have anything useful to add?"

"Jack listen." Pleaded Daniel, "We've encountered long range communication devices in the past, one of which linked your counterpart to a small town barber, he had dreams about our missions for eight years! In our timeline, there is a well known work of fiction named Star Wars, which features ships of these same designs! That can't be a coincidence!"

"All I want to know Daniel, is do we shoot those or not." Snapped jack stabbing a finger at a pair of vulture droids descending on the Pegasus. "Cora can we go any faster?"

"Given our course and speed, that would be inadvisable." Replied Cora, "Traveling at sublight without extensive use of our displacement field is advisable given our fuel shortage, if we were to initiate a full burn and accelerate beyond the speed of light, it would represent an exponential increase in Tylium consumption."

"Can you get us back where we came from?" asked O'Neill

"Possibly." Hedged the computer, "Upon reviewing data, it is more likely that we have made an intergalactic jump, as opposed to the theory presented by Colonel Cameron, if we are indeed still in our own quantum reality, I may be able to plot a more efficient jump back to your home system, providing our current location can be identified, and the capacitors powering the time drive can be recharged."

"How long will that take." Asked Jack grimly. There was a long pause and eventually the computer replied,

"I cannot give an estimate, I do not yet know how to accomplish these things."

"Well that plan sucks!" exclaimed O'Neill, "Carter Daniel, get to the jumper, we may have to evacuate, at least its got a cloak."

"That's it!" exclaimed Daniel "Atlantis was able to cloak itself by altering its shields, can we do that Cora?"

"The Pegasus does not have the same type of shields." Explained Cora, "Atlantis projects a multi wavelength energy barrier, where as the Pegasus utilizes a sweeping positively charged oscillation to divert…"

"No was good enough for me." Cut in Daniel, "To the Jumper!" As the others rose from their seats and began to leave the control center, Daniel asked "Cora, can you download yourself into the Jumper?"

"I can compress a backup of my program, certainly." Offered Cora, "But I have been directed to prevent the Pegasus from falling into enemy hands, I must remain onboard and control of its systems if I am to accomplish this."

The others paused.

"Aw come on, we can't leave Cora!" objected Cameron, "And Earth can sue the ship!"

"Everyone get to the Jumper" ordered Jack, "We'll unhook the time drive, cloak and wait this out. Cora, if this gets dicey, you know what I have to do."

"Understood Colonel, and if I may say so, you are the most remarkable humans I have had the pleasure of working with for several millennia."

"Don't talk like that Cora, this ain't over yet." Answered Jack as he raced down the halls to the landing bay. As he entered the colossal chamber he skidded to a halt. "wait a minute, we're the ONLY…"

"Jack come on!" shouted Sam, Daniel added hurry, Jack straightened his hat and resumed sprinting towards the safety of the jumper.

***

As a company of battle droids stomped through the halls ahead of them, two Nemodians looked around cavernous landing bay.

"Our forces have completed an examination of this vessel." Reported one to the other, "It is ancient, and primitive, but serviceable. The hull is intact and quite strong, though its weapons are pitiful, its shields nonexistent."

"This relic is pitiful but it may yet serve us." Predicted the nemodian, "With sufficient modification, this vessel may serve us . It is untraceable, un-recognizable, It could prove very useful in delivering forces behind enemy lines."

"We can fit many fighters and droidekas onboard a vessel of this size." Agreed the other, "Your strategy is wise Excellency,"

"it is fortuitous that we found this vessel deserted." Declared the first, "have on of our subsidiary companies tow it to Corellia, we will salvage it there, and after a time begin smuggling our forces onto it, discretely of course."


	10. Fact or Fiction

Chapter 9

"I thought the cantina was supposed to be lively." Commented Cameron, "Jittery aliens, jaunty music…wookies…" he mused to Daniel, the cantina in question was decidedly quiet. A number of scruffy looking humans were sprawled about the place, nursing drinks, hunched over table, conversing quietly in private booths, and there was a pair of aliens Daniel identified as mon Calamari at the bar itself.

"Well its Ten O'clock in the morning." Observed Daniel, "Most bars on earth would be dead. Why would Corellia be any different?."

"Got to admire the breakfast of champions." Commented Jack nodding at a man nursing a steaming drink of… well he wasn't sure but the man had the drained worn look of a serious drinker. He tapped his radio "Teal'c how's the fort?"

"I would not call this structure a "fort" O'Neil, it is too lightly defended, it is more of an informal landing area." Came Teal'c's reply.

Jack rolled his eye "Figure of speech Teal'c, just checking that our ride home is secure, How's Carter?"

"She appears to be making some headway in procuring samples of hyper drive technology. I must go now O'Neil, we have obtained employment in order to gain income and an opportunity to examine spacecraft first hand, and I am needed to… carry something." There was no mistaking the irritation in Teal'c's voice.

"Well count yourself lucky Teal'c we're the one's doing all the hard work gathering information out here doing recon and such." Replied jack lightly tipping his glass back and drinking what he assumed was some kind of juice.

"Indeed." Came the dark reply.

Jack turned to Daniel, "So what have we gathered besides your opinions and your personal movie reviews."

"Cameron and I are positive that this is the galaxy as depicted in both the first trilogy of Star wars, and the prequel trilogy as well. We know that the Jumper reports our temporal position as the mid 1950's. We can extrapolate from what Cameron and I know of the movies relative to events in our own timeline we have arrived towards the end of some extremely significant events.

"The first Star Wars movie was released in 1977." Interjected Cameron, " Assuming a real time transmission by the ancient communications device, that means that the protagonist, Luke Skywalker was about 18 or 19 at the time. In the final installment of the movies, Luke's birth took place shortly after the events of the Clone wars came to a close. I caught a glimpse o the planet, beneath us and it was a city, like the whole planet was a city, so we must have jumped right into one of the biggest battles of the war."

"Lucky us." Commented jack wryly, "So what about the aliens holding our ship? Are they good guys or bad guys?"

"Well that's a little tough to determine." Said Daniel with a glance at Cameron, "Both sides are being manipulated. While the origins o the separatist movement are at best, pretty shady, they are being lead by the apprentice of a Sith lord. The Sith are orchestrating galaxy wide conflicts as a means of gaining political power in a climate of fear."

"Ah." Said jack closing his eyes "War mongering."

"We're in a unique position here Jack, we know that chancellor Palpatine, the man who essentially controls the galaxy is a Sith lord, as is Count Dooku who essentially controls the Seperatists."

"Actually Count Dooku is probably dead." Observed Cameron, "he was killed by the jedi during the battle of Coruscant."

"Woah!" said jack, "No spoilers! No one wants spoilers! The important thing is that this war is almost over yes? Well then the creeps who are messing around with our ship aren't going to get a chance to do anything with it, more than that they will be a bit distracted soon, as their war effort collapses? Yes?"

"Sir I don't think you understand." Interjected Cameron , "We are in their past here, with knowledge of what is to come. We can tell the Jedi, they can arrest Palpatine."

"So what?" demanded O'neil, "This isn't our galaxy, lets just let them do their thing and be on our way as soon as Cora can figure out how to get us home!"

"Sam said she isn't sure Cora CAN anymore." Objected Cameron, "Those robots are taking the original drive out as part of their upgrade."

"Carter will figure it out." Said jack dismissively, "We'll bring a great big honking space ship back to earth with all the best gadgets,"

"it doesn't have beam weapons." Grumbled Mitchell.

"jack we can't just let this happen." Objected Daniel, "It's a holocaust like nothing we've ever conceived of on earth, whole planets will be destroyed!"

"Daniel if we change they way things happened here, is that Lucas fellow going to write the story the same?" demanded O'Neill, "How do we change it because you know about it, if you don't know about it?"

"What if we were supposed to change it and that's why you've never heard of it.?" Countered Daniel.

"Aw for crying out loud." Muttered O'Neil. "You can't just cherry pick from both timelines Daniel, I hate war as much as the next guy but I also know better than to stick my nose in someone else's' business. The sooner we get out of this crazy mess and back to Earth, the better." He threw back his drink wishing it were something stronger, picked up his hat and set off with Daniel hastily following afterwards still arguing.

Cameron moved to follow but froze when he felt what was obviously the butt of a pistol up against his ribs.

"lets find somewhere a little more private." Murmured a sultry voice in his ear, "I want to hear everything you have to say about the Sith. Its best if you come easy."

"Right." Said Cameron, "That's what she said. Look lady I don't have time…" he heard a click. "Fine. Have it your way." As he moved to comply, he threw and elbow into her sternum and shouted "Colonel!" he threw both hands down upon the pistol and managed to deflect it as a blue beam fired wildly. Catching one of Mon Calamari at the bar. As the poor creature slumped at the bar, his companion turned and leaped off of the bar stool in rage.

"I should warn you, I am highly skilled in the sodan art of… " began Mitchell turning to face his opponent. He was monetarily surprised to find an attractive woman in her mid to late twenties wearing an expression of unguarded pain as she caught her breath. Instantly contrite he moved to apologize only to get a boot in the face. As he stumbled back the mon calamari grappled with the much smaller woman lurching against another table upending it, and the man who had been drowsing upon it. With a drowsy cry of rage the man careened into another man. Mitchell's adversary ducked under the mon calamari's flailing arms and began to pummel the unfortunate creature in the gut. Mitchell found himself having his head slammed against a table by an angry patron, the table buckled beneath him as Cameron threw his assailant over his shoulder onto it.

He looked up to see the woman finished with the unconscious mon calamari and now fighting a trio of furious brawlers. She deflected a punch from her left with her right, and the punch that followed it with her right, smashing down. She struck again with the heel of her right palm striking the first man's jaw. She switched her direction and drove right fist into her second opponents stomach while grabbing his throat with her leff. The advance of the second man had blocked the third and has the second man fell wheezing to the floor the third instinctively grabbed him, dropping him only when . the mysterious assailant clapped his ears. As his fellow slumped against him and the man cradled his ringing ears, the woman darted forward and drew the man's own blaster, forgotten in the brawl from his side. She shot the man in the chest and the sound of the blast froze all in the tavern.

"Bounty Hunter." hissed a reptile sullenly dropping a stool, "We want no trouble from you."

"Don't worry." She answered, "I have what I came for." She gestured at Cameron who was just dragging himself to his feet. "You come with me or the next shot is going through your face."

"I'd rather you didn't." interrupted a voice from the doorway. Jack Oneil stood with a Zat trained on the woman. They locked eyes for a moment. "Don't try it." He warned. She dropped the pistol, pointed in the wrong direction anyway to the floor and slowly raised her hands.

"Mitchell, ease away from the crazy ninja lady." Requested O'neil. Cameron stumbled forward shaking his head.

"Never could resist a good brawl" Cameron muttered sheepishly. For an instant however he crossed between O'neil and the still unnamed assailant. She snatched a glass from a table and flung it over his shoulder causing jack to duck. The woman was already bounding forward shoving Cameron aside. She snaked an arm around O'neil's forearm, and the Zat discharged, stunning Cameron. The woman kept her left arm looped over Jack's spun around raising her elbow to the back of her neck. Her momentum was interrupted as her knee gave out with a wet crunch. Jack leaned on knee twisting sickly sideways but to her credit, the woman only grimaced as he bore her down, never releasing her grip on his arm. Jack looped his own arm over her head withdrawing the first Zat still in hand, and pressing the Zat against her spin with his arm hauling backward the woman realized that the wrong movement from her could very well result in her own broken neck.

"Who the hell are you? Demanded jack, "Daniel get Cameron off the floor. And keep us covered, if she tries anything else shoot us both."

"You broke my knee" sobbed the woman "I need medical…"

"Aw put a cork in it." Retorted O'Neil, "no one's buying it, what are you after?"

"Uh jack?" interrupted Daniel cautiously as A groggy Cameron staggered to his feet for the second time.

Jack looked around. Whereas before they had been inside a relatively disreputable bar, they were now on the doorstep leading out, and were beginning to draw curious stores.

"Eh screw it." Said O'Neil dismissively thumping the woman with the Zat. As she slumped unconscious, he rose and cracked his back. He followed Cameron, who was being helped by Daniel as they moved down the street. "You know I can't take you anywhere."

"Perhaps you should come with me." Suggested a calm female voice for the second time that day. Jack whirled and trained the zat on a pair of newcomers as they stepped out of a doorway. "We have a place nearby if you would care to join us." She continued.

"Thanks ma'am, but I think we can take care of ourselves." Said jack jerking his head sarcastically at the battered Mitchell. "Besides we could barely handle the last friend we made out here."

"My name is Charis Traven, I am a Jedi Master, and this is my Padawan Roda Numalli. The authorities will be on their way, however I have the distinct impression that this may be a jedi matter. If you will not come with us, then we will leave you to the authorities."

"Everyone in that bar has our description." Daniel murmured to Jack, "And the Jedi were pretty trustworthy in the movies."

"Daniel I'm sick of those movies." Snapped O'neil,. "We're not characters in a fictional setting with special effects and a corny plot, and so far this galaxy hasn't been particularly family friendly."

"Fine Jack but that's why its all the more important to make allies here." said Daniel, "We know almost nothing about whets going on in this galaxy except that its about to get really dangerous really soon."

"You want us to side with the losers?" demanded O'neil "Don't the jedi get slaughtered?" he regretted his out burst immediately as Chariss moved forward dangerously.

"Sir, you have knowledge of the sith and now you speak of the death of Jedi, either you will come with us now and we can be, " She sniffed at the word "Civilized"' or I will turn you over to the authorities myself and see what they find out. "

"Maybe we should do what the lady says" suggested Cameron through swollen lips, "Sides I'm not feeling so good."

Jack pressed his lips together in annoyance. "Fine. " he relented tapping his radio, "Teal'c?"

"We are in position O'Neill." Acknowledged the Jaffa, "Though we cannot find a sufficiently discrete area in which to de-cloak. Though you appear to have retrieved Cameron unharmed."

"Mostly." Slurred Cameron

Jack raised his eyebrows at Chariss as her startled expression conveyed her understanding. "Alright follow overhead discretely and if anything happens to us you have my permission to open fire on this nice lady and her protégé." The Jumper had no drones left but he figured a little bluff never hurt anyone.

"Rest assured you will not be harmed." Promised Chariss, "Now quickly follow me."


	11. Oil and Water

Chapter 10

They followed the jedi to a small apartment on the outskirts of town. The building was ancient and rickety, but its tenants were nowhere to be seen. The solitude seemed to be its selling point for a pair that had expressed a desire to remain discrete. Inside the apartment was worn and sparsely furnished but it was clean and well enough maintained. Chariss brought out a medikit and applied a compress to Cameron's face and another to a nasty cut on the side of his head. She produced some type of medical instrument and had her apprentice pass it steadily over his ribs.

"Well?" asked Jack expectantly, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"We are Jedi." Answered Chariss, as though that were enough, "I am afraid our mission is secret."

"I don't know jack about jedi." Deadpanned O'neil, "Enlighten me.

Raising her eyebrows Chariss said "Perhaps you should enlighten US as to YOUR identity?"

"Time to go." Declared O'neill standing and putting his hat on. "Nice chatting with you"

"Stop." Ordered Roda whipping out the cylinder at his waist. With a snap hiss it ignited a towering blade of blue fire sprang out. O'neill already had his Zat in hand and with both hands pointed it at Roda,

"Hold it right there son." He said gently but with warning in his voice, "This doesn't have to happen."

"Hold Roda." Advised Chariss but the young jedi did not heed her warning. Extending a hand, the Zat leaped in jack's hand, but because of his double handed grip it did not fly free, instead Jack grappled in surprise and then eyes narrowing squeezed and a bolt of blue flew towards the padawan. Roda blocked with his lightsaber but the energy arced around it and he crumpled back into his chair. Jack leveled his Zat at the still seated Chariss. "We're leaving ma'am, don't try it."

"Sir I must apologize." She replied, "My padawan is young and I beliee he read this situation very differently. I can tell you are not criminals." If my padawan were somewhat more open to the force as I am, he would have seen that. Sadly, he lets his feelings lead him sometimes. Please stay, "

Daniel, who hadn't had time to move now slowly stood. "Jack, we can trust her." He said, "I have a feeling."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've heard all day!" exploded jack, "Have you lost your mind? Mitchel just got his ass kicked by a room full of strangers, which admittedly…" jack paused to consider, "Isn't that surprising, but the crazy bitch who started it all was VERY interested in the sith, whom you told me are currently plotting to overthrow this entire galaxy. Now these characters are here with crazy light swords and superpowers. We're alone out here Daniel, I know its not what your used to, but there's no airforce, no SGC. If we get in trouble no one is pulling us out. We can't afford to get caught up in this crap. We are going back to the jumper right now, and we will sit on the Pegasus until Cora figures out how to get us back to our galaxy. End of story, no arguments, if you want to stay and play hero with the locals that's your problem, Sam and Teal'c are coming with me and Mitchell is until he's back on his feet."

"Your friend may have a concussion." Pointed out Chariss, "Wouldn't it be better at least to bring him to a hospital?"

"No." answered jack, "I don't trust you lady and I don't know who my enemies are here, its time to go to ground."

Silence held the room for a long moment until finally Daniel said, "Fine. I have to stay Jack, I have to. These are real people and I can't let what is aw in that movie happen. We're talking about billions of lives at stake."

The two men regarded each other carefully. Jack was tempted to just stun everybody and drag Daniel back to the jumper hovering outside, but he knew he would never hear the end of it. With an exasperated sigh he waved his Zat at Daniel and pout it away."

"Fine, stay if you want. Take Mitchell to a hospital as soon as junior comes around." He gestured at Roda, "We'll wait at the spaceport, but Daniel," he said raising a finger in warning, "if there's even one sign of danger, your on your own. We aren't the team you are used to. I have to look out for my own people."

"I understand that Jack." Said Daniel, "I'll check in at regular intervals."

Jack turned stepped out onto the balcony. Almost immediately a hatch opened as if from nowhere and revealed Sam nervously holding her pistol, and further inside Teal'c seated at the controls, swiveled in his chair with a staff weapon pointed towards the entrance. Carefully jack stepped onto th extended ramp and with a glance at the ground two stories below quickly clambered into the jumper.

The hatch closed and Jack stumbled over to the cockpit banging a shin on the boxes of supplies and stacks of staff weapons littering the aft section. The jumper had been cluttered by the abundance of staff weapons and zat guns that they had brought with them from Earth to trade. Their food supply was rapidly diminishing as well, but many new arrivals added to the clutter. Metallic body parts were stacked in a neat but macabre pile in the corner as well as a large contraption that appeared at first glance to be an advanced trash can design. O'neill was somewhat excited to see a futuristic blaster of some type as well, though it was badly corroded and one end was crushed.

"Did a little shopping?" he quipped.

As he moved to sit he felt a touch on his arm and suddenly Sam as hugging him fiercely. he returned the hug and after a moment realized she wasn't letting go. He waved his arms awkwardly at Teal'c and shrugged. Teal'c turned in his seat with a faint air of disdain.

"Easy, Easy." Said Jack patting her back awkwardly, "It was just a little bar fight."

"…on an alien world." Mumbled Carter from his shoulder,

"Which we are still on." Reminded jack, "We have to do this later Sam. Gently prying her off of him he made his way to the cockpit. Sitting down he placed his hands on the console and closed his eyes in concentration. After a moment he cracked one open and swiveled his head around to meet Teal'c's unblinking gaze.

"Did you want a hug too?" demanded Jack.

***

"The jedi are an order devoted to peace and order in the galaxy." Began Chariss. She and Daniel were seated cross legged in a bare room. "We study and commit our lives to the way of the Force."

"That seems at odds with your devotion to peace." Observed Daniel. "Force and peace do not often go hand in hand."

"I do not speak of force of arms I speak of an energy created by all living things, binding all that is." Clarified Chariss. "there are many aspects to the Force. It is living, it is unifying, it has its dark side its greater and lesser aspects. The force is both creator of and created by it may be guided or provide guidance. It is power, and it is weakness."

"You speak of its duality." Commented Daniel, "In my experience such duality implies a struggle to maintain balance."

"Very good!" approved Chariss, "Though you appear unaware of the force, you have at once grasped a fundamental truth that still escapes my young padawan."

"Can you teach me more of this force?" Asked Daniel

Chariss eyed him shrewdly and then sighed closing her eyes. Daniel was struck by a sense that he was being examined thoroughly, unseen hands seemed to ruffle through his hair, delve into his mind, into his very spirit. He felt an instinct to fight it, but chose instead to trust. He willed himself to relax, and to open up. After a moment Chariss opened her eyes regretfully.

"I sense that in your own way you have already been touched by the force, and touched it in return. I believe that those same experiences close you to embracing it once again."

"if you immediately know the candle light is fire, the meal was cooked long ago." Surmised Daniel disappointed,

"Indeed!" exclaimed Chariss "Rules, rules, rules." She lamented. "You are indeed teachable Daniel Jackson, your mind is opened to possibilities, yet a sense a degree of discipline that escapes many. You see possibilities because you choose to, because you yearn to. You are a philosopher and a panderer. Our order would benefit greatly from having you among us. You are also rebellious and free thinking, an advocate for those less fortunate. Our order is very strict, only one who can be taught at a young age can receive the most crucial of teachings without question. It is to obey. A jedi must place others above themselves, and the force above all else."

"Blind obedience subverts free will." Replied Daniel cautiously.

"Yet free will is flawed," Chariss explained, "We are humans of limited knowledge, influenced by fickle emotions. We are not equipped to handle the power of the force with our wisdom alone, gained through paltry experiences in our time here which is all too brief. Wisdom comes from the force and the force alone."

"You are not automatons." Persisted Daniel, "You turn to the Force for wisdom but you still have to interpret and apply that wisdom. To consider yourselves mere instruments of the force…" he floundered, "That's self denial! Its an illusion!"

"As I feared." Replied Chariss a slight edge to her voice. "Your great strength, your desire to question, to challenge, the very trait that makes you open to learning of the force, would drive you to misconstrue our teachings."

Daniel thought for a moment regretfully, about an order that seemed to genuinely seek wisdom, yet seemed founded on an intrinsic mistrust of the individual, and an unwillingness to promote free will among its followers. He sensed that he could continue arguing with Chariss for many hours but that he would be debating in form and not substance. She was closed now, any response he generated would not be a discussion it would be a debate.

"A very wise friend of mine once said, "The river tells no lies, yet standing at its shores the dishonest man still hears them"" replied Daniel. "And in our own ways we are all dishonest whether intentionally or not."

"It is an irony perhaps that in arguing the case for individual choice and personal experience over subservience to greater wisdom, you must fall upon the wisdom of others to defend your case." Replied Chariss with some acidity.

Daniel suppressed a sigh of genuine regret, and he could see now looking in Chariss' eyes that she sensed his genuine disappointment. There was an awkward moment where he half expected her to apologize, but she could not seem to bring herself to do it. He broke the moment by changing the subject.

"Well you have been very forthcoming, I suppose it is my turn. I must warn you in advance, what I am about to explain may seem," he floundered for a moment, "Convoluted."

"Well we will make of it what we may." Replied Chariss, motioning her padawan into the room. He had appeared somewhat older to Daniel at first guess but looking at him now blinking sleep from his eyes and observing the somewhat petulant set of his lip, he appeared to be still a teenager. "Ah but here is my young padawan who may owe you an apology. Would you care to sit Roda?" Suggested Chariss imperially. Daniel detected a note of chastisement, the boy had been about to sit anyway, and it seemed the intention wasn't as much to direct, as to reprimand the boy for his earlier behavior.

"I've been stunned once or twice myself." Revealed Daniel Jackson, trying to be friendly, "its pretty painful and very sore waking up."

"I may have underestimated your friend." Acknowledged the boy ruefully. "I suppose I earned my bruises,"

"With my padawan awake, your explanations may have to wait a bit." Declared Chariss, "We should bring your friend to the hospital."


	12. Pegasus Unbound part I

Chapter 11

"Jesus fluffy Christ its about time!" exploded Jack, "Mitchell's been slumped over in that chair for the better part of an hour while those two chatter away!"

"I have not known Daniel Jackson for long, yet it seems to me that he is easily drawn into discussion." Remarked Teal'c, "Though Chariss seems more pragmatic she also seems to think it quite important for her to demonstrate her depth of awareness to him."

"She's an ego trip." Summarized O'Neill, "If she was intuitively aware of the universe around her, she would have noticed we circled back and Daniel has been on vox."

"I believe her awareness is limited by her desire to expand it." Replied Teal'c, she cannot see what she does not look for."

"Daniel never got around to telling her where we came from./" said Sam from the back. She held a droids head partially disassembled in her lap and was picking at the components within it. "it must be killing him to see her reaction to parallel universes timelines and other galaxies."

"Daniel's not like that.' Answered jack, "He talks a lot but only if he thinks his audience will listen. He gets upset when people don't understand what he's talking about.

"He must be, in fact, frequently disappointed in you." Observed Teal'c with a superior grin.

"Its not that I don't understand, its that I don't CARE." Clarified Jack."How are you doing with Tweaky back there?" he asked Sam, he had suggested she tinker with the droid to take her mind off the events unfolding before them. She was still unused to the kind of alien situations they were finding themselves in and Jack had to admit himself, he had fallen into a kind of restless agitation since first stepping through the stargate weeks ago.

"The technology is fascinating." Replied Sam, "You didn't give us much time, but I managed to trade for a box of droid parts. The guy said this one was a repair droid before it broke down, so I am cannibalizing from these two to get a working unit."

"Are you building a boyfriend for Cora?" asked Jack, "I don't know if just one can keep her in line."

"I'm hoping to interface it to Cora so we can learn more about this galaxy's technology." Explained Sam, "So that when the time comes, we can retake the Pegasus." She looked up at Jack with worry in her eyes, "Jack even with Cora TELLING me how things worked, I barely understood it. With the technology here, well the best I can do is manipulate it. Luckily, everything seems to be designed in a modular user friendly manner. You don't have to be an astrophysicist to repair and operate it. If I can't become an expert I was hoping to build one."

"Ah." Replied Jack mollified. He hadn't really planned out how to retake the ship, and Carter's way represented a brilliant solution. The droids intended to automate the Pegasus under a central control system. He had convinced Sam that with the right intel Cora would be able to override that one system instead of figuring out how to disconnect and reconnect systems on the fly.

"They have entered some sort of hover transport vehicle and are proceeding towards the city." Commented Teal'c as Jack followed them with the jumper.

"We'll follow them to the hospital, and make sure they get there safe and sound." He said aloud, "Than we'll check how the Pegasus is doing and return to the surface to pick them up. The jumper can keep track of that implant Cameron's carrying around."

Teal'c glanced at him but said nothing. Jack exhaled slowly. He was feeling agitated. This whole experience reminded him of being behind enemy lines. Even in a situation with no immediate danger, there was a sense of wrongness. If he had felt that way on Earth he mused to himself, he felt it doubly so now.

The Pegasus, or Cora as they were now calling her, was suspended in a latticework of industry. Droids crawled over her surface welding patches of armor to strengthen the battered colonial hull. Turrets along her spine had been removed and more powerful turbo lasers had been installed. Inside as the jumper entered the bay they could see a multitude of aliens lining up along shuttle ramps. While the ships battered and blackened sections had been repaired, the battlestar still had a fairly weathered and worn out look.

"They can't be finished already!" Exclaimed O'Neill. He was startled by Cora's voice from the jumpers comm. system.

"I had expected a more significant upgrade." Commented Sam from the back, "I mean it looks a lot better sure, but its like their going out of their way to make sure it looks…"

"Old?" asked O'Neill, "Beat up?" he narrowed his eyes, "is there something wrong with a little wear and tear Sam?"

"Well frankly yes, I mean ever since I was a little kid I've wanted to fly in a shiny new space ship like a space princess not cruise around in a dilapidated old…" She turned midsentence to find Jack looking highly displeased. "Oh boy." She trailed of to herself, unconsciously she clutched the cuffs of her sleeves and looked down. Jack's reply was cut off as Cora's voice filtered over the comm. system.

"The ship is not fully operational yet." She reported, "However most of the crucial upgrades have been made. The tylium reactors have been restored and refilled, the fuel is frequently referred to as Tibanna here. Many of my engine components have been refit, with replacements that mimic the originals. It seems that while the original design is less efficient, in terms of fuel consumption, it is capable of much greater output, due to superior materials technology." A note of obvious pride could be heard in the computer's voice.

"Onboard systems have been augmented with a hyper matter reactor, hyper drive and ion engines for maneuvering. They have replaced many of the shipside mainframes that once contained my programming. I have uploaded compressed versions of my program into several vipers and shuttles here in the bay. It seems the our trespassers see some value in our fighter design and the launch tube system is of interest to them as well."

"Well, if you can upload yourself back into the jumpers computer," proposed Sam, "I have a droid here who can provide information regarding basic technologies."

"That would be helpful, but a knowledge of contemporary software protocols and programming languages would be more beneficial,"

"Uric is that something you can help with?"

"I believe we can mistress Carter." Replied the droid torso that Carter had been tinkering with, "My counterpart R3 is able to tap into the wireless transition that your computer is using to interface with the jumper, we can begin a data transfer of common software protocols and hierarchies for her to process. Additionally, might I suggest that your computer simply monitor the transmissions being sent from droid to droid? The Seperatist droids are heavily reliant on such transmissions to program monitor and control their constituents."

"The jumper has more sophisticated detection and processing systems." Commented Cora, "Were we to network my systems, with the jumper and R3 I believe I could quickly develop invasion algorithms that could successfully override the Droids wireless control systems."

"Lets get to it." Suggested Sam, negotiating her way through the clutter in the back.

"She's in hog heaven." Commented Jack in amusement.

***

Cameron opened his eyes.

"Jackson!" he declared, "What the hell happened? Where am I?"

"This is Corellia. You went to a bar and got your ass kicked by an alien bounty hunter." Summarized Daniel rising from the chair beside Cameron's bed, "You weren't doing so well, we brought you here and it turns out you had a concussion and some internal bleeding."

"Lucky for me I have a hard head." Grinned Cameron, "Doesn't even hurt."

"Well it wouldn't." replied Daniel, "Our jedi friends brought you to a hospital your patched up now."

"We in trouble with the law or anything?" wondered Cameron,

"This is Corellia." Repeated Daniel, "bar fights are sort of a national past time here."

"So we have Jedi friends! Can't wait to see your light sabers." Exclaimed Cameron hopping out of bed. Daniel looked pointedly at the ceiling and cleared his throat. Beside him Roda smirked and Chariss chuckled. "Oh damnit Jackson, why did they take my clothes off?"

"Well ostensibly it was to examine you, but we HAVE been wearing the same clothes for weeks, and yours weren't exactly immaculate when we first met you anyhow." Answered Daniel still looking away, "The doctors brought you a new set of coveralls as sort of a charity gesture, they're over on the other side of the bed"

Cameron dressed hurriedly and when the others could look at him once more he focused his attention on Chariss.

"My apologies ma'am." He said

"No need to apologize." Replied Chariss holding up her light saber, "Mine's bigger anyway." She quipped.

"Jack, Sam and Teal'c headed back to Cora to check on her status." Reported Daniel, "We're heading back to their place to wait. Hopefully with a pair of guides we can stay out of trouble, in exchange I have agreed to tell them what we know of this galaxies future from the Star Wars movies."

As the quartet signed out Cameron and moved out of the hospital, they did not see a familiar figure rise casually from the waiting room, brace on one foot, and follow them.

***

"And ultimately, Luke Skywalker, having sensed the good in him, refuses to fight him any further. The emperor burns him near death with force lightening, and Vader can't tolerate it any longer. The good in him moves him to action. He grabs Emperor Palpatine, who begins frying him as well, but not enough to prevent Vader from throwing him over the rail and down a deep shaft."

"Which to be perfectly honest had no place in the emperor's throne room in the first place." Interjected Cameron.

"Why not?" Asked Roda, "You just said it had a rail. Perfectly safe unless your Sith apprentice is trying to murder you. "

"Do not make light of this my young apprentice." Cautioned Chariss, "Though we are now forearmed we must get this information to the jedi Council."

"How do we do that master?" asked Roda couching his exasperation in respect. "Just tell them that the humans from another galaxy sixty years from the future gave us tomorrows newsvids? Oh wait," he continued, "You aren't all from the other galaxy, some of you are from parallel universes."

"The knowledge that Palpatine is the sith Lord should be enough." Replied Chariss, "he manipulates this war, through Dooku and Grevious. If we expose him the truth shall prevail. Anakin will also have to be dealt with."

"He hasn't done anything yet, " pointed out Daniel, "he hasn't even fallen to the dark side yet."

"That does not matter, he has the potential to." Said Chariss, "Such a monster cannot be permitted to continue, at the very least he must be marooned on a distant world where he can do no harm, if I had my way he would be cast out of our order, possibly mind wiped if it is possible for one as powerful as he, most likely he would need to be terminated."

"I kind of liked him in Episode II." Contributed Cameron lamely as Daniel exploded

"You can't kill a man for what he "might" become!" exclaimed Daniel, "Not when you can give him a choice. If Anakin had known any of what was to come, he would never have fallen for Palpatine's tricks. Telling him now might prevent him from EVER…"

"We do not have that luxury." Snapped Chariss, "This is our entire order, our entire galaxy you are talking about, we have to act. The death of Anakin is a small price to pay for the safety of billions."

Any attempt at argument was forestalled as the hovercar lurched and everyone fell forward against their restraints. The vehicle moving at terrific speed flipped in mid air and scraped for some distance along its roof crumpling slowly downwards. Daniel and Cameron were pinned in the back as Roda and Chariss scrambled out the front. With a snap hiss Roda's light saber ignited and as Daniel shoved against the ground he felt the car suddenly lift and spin in air dropping to the ground with an ungainly thud. Blaster fire was heard as Daniel tried his door furiously. Cursing he threw himself into the front seat, Cameron right behind him, and the two stumbled out. Chariss and Roda battled three figures in grey armor and two massive droids. One of the figures spotted Cameron. Cameron reached for his sidearm, and realized it wasn't there. With a curse he dove behind the car just as a stunbolt hit him. For the second time in one day he fell unconscious.

Daniel tapped his radio and shouted "Jack! We're in trouble! Our friends are back!" Cameron's assailant fired another shut at Daniel, but Roda leaped to intercept it, this left Chariss alone to face both droids and the other two and she was driven back quickly.

"Roda!" she snapped, "Mind your focus!" As he leaped back beside her Daniel Dove behind the hovercar dragging Cameron with him. Fumbling around the seat he found his Zat discarded in the shuffle. With his weapons back at the Jedi's apartment it would have to do. A clunk sounded on the roof above him and he rolled back away from the car to see an armored figure standing over him. A stun blast hit the dirt beside him as he rolled and he fired back. With unnatural speed the figure before him pivoted and the Zat bolt flew past harmlessly. The bounty hunter faced Daniel again as though daring Daniel to try again.

He did. He shot the car. Several times. Energy arced along its surface and the figure froze startled but even as it began to shrug off the first blast the next two caused it to crumple bonelessly to the hood of the car and roll off onto Daniel, pinning him with its bulk. As Daniel struggled against is dead weight he determined it was definitely female, but the armors weight and the angle at which he was pinned made it difficult to move. Glancing at the two jedi for help he saw that they split up, dividing the droids fire. Clearly the bounty hunters were after Daniel and Cameron, having used the stun bolts on them but had no qualms about killing the Jedi.

As one of the droids turned to track Chariss Daniel raised the Zat and fired several shots. It rebounded harmlessly off the droids energy shield, but the droid turned for a crucial moment. Chariss darted forward plunging her saber into its shields, her face a mask of concentration. Crackling and hissing from both the light saber and Daniels Zat bolts the Droids shields collapsed at last and as it whirled on Chariss, she ducked under its swinging blasters and stabbed up through its chest into the control processor in its head. She was forced to leap away as the second droid turned from Roda and peppered the ground about her with blaster fire.

Free of the relentless onslaught Roda reached a hand towards the Hover Car and it lifted a few feet off the ground and slammed sideways into the droid in and abrupt movement. The Car broke around the shields of the droid but Roda followed up by clapping its segments onto the droid. Chariss had moved to challenge the remaining two bounty hunters. As Daniel shoved against his assailant one final time she moved suddenly and he realized she had already shaken off the stun of the Zat gun. He felt it jerked from his hand and heard it discharge as his world exploded into pain. He heard a shouted warning "Master---" as more the Zat was fired several more times and then he faded into unconsciousness.


	13. Pegasus Unbound Part II

Chapter 12

Sira Daros looked down at both figures in satisfaction. She kept a weather eye on the two Jedi but they were unimportant now. Her brother Armen strode jauntily upwards as she regarded the weapon in her hand.

"What is that thing little sister? A trophy?"

"A weapon." she answered triumphantly, " and a potent one against the jedi. See how the energy seemed to twist around their light sabers on contact? It is a very painful way to stun someone as well." Her other brother Jarrol joined them and preferred an identical zat to Armen which he had taken from Daniel Cameron's unconscious form.

"It stinks of the Sith." He commented, "Yet it served us well. These are the two who engaged you at the bar?"

"This buffoon is one of them." She said prodding Cameron with her foot, "This one was with the other. If I ever see that miserable gundark again the Gods will weep for him!"

As if on cue a screaming sound issued from the sky above. Sira and Armen ducked instinctively but Jarrol jerked upwards in alarm. An invisible force swooped over them and demonstrated that this was exactly what not to do. The Something collided with Jarrol and hurled him quite a distance. Sira and her brother crouched as something big yet invisible flew right over them humming loudly.

"A cloaked ship." Assessed Armen calmly through her helmet, "Very advanced to maneuver so, it doesn't use repulsors or we'd have been crushed."

"They don't want to hurt their friends." Replied Siris. Grabbing Daniels limp form Armen dragged him upright swapping the Zat for his blaster which he pointed at Daniel's head. She did the same with Mitchell.

"Raala we need an evac." Commed Armen as a ship appeared before them. Still using Cameron as a shield he backed towards Jarrol's position.

***

"Crap, there goes my splatter spree." Groused O'Neill. " Carter take over." He ordered. Sam picker her way around him and sat down. "Put us down by the jedi facing the intruders." Ordered jack as he dug around for supplies in the back. He and Teal'c were putting on vests and checking ammo. As Jack reached for a Zat he saw Teal'c grab a staff weapon.

"Our foes appear to be armored." Explained Teal'c "And they are using Cameron Mitchell and Daniel Jackson as human shields."

"We'll zat them all and sort them out later." Replied Jack

"That would be unwise." Insisted Teal'c "They appear to use energy weapons therefore it would be likely that their armor protects against energy, further, the Zat delivers a stunning charge, two shots from a Zat however will kill most, Daniel and Mitchell may carry such a charge, as both their assailants are holding zats. Another shot while harmless to those in armor may kill them."

"Teal'c you are just a ray of sunshine today." Grumbled jack as the door to the jumper opened.

***

The whining had stopped and the dirt had settled. Siriss looked at Armen as he turned towards where the jedi lay.

"Are they gone?" She asked

"No." answered Armen, "There." He pointed at a flattened area before them, "The grass, a cloaked ship!"

"Who has such technology?" wondered Siris

"I don't know, but if we can't collect the bounty on the Sith maybe we can sell the ship to the Sepratists." replied Armen, "How is jarrol?"

Siris spared a glance at her other brother who was beginning to stir.

"Alive at least." She answered.

A head seemed to appear from nowhere, Grey haired with sunglasses it peered at the jedi, and then seemed to swivel forwards them. The apparently floating head was joined by shoulder and a pair of arms holding a weapon. Siris recognized it as the man who'd broken her arm. "You!" she hissed.

From his position atop the jumper Jack waved. "Howdy!" he shouted as Teal'c passed him where he stood atop the burned out Astromech droid. Passing through the cloaking field Teal'c seemed to appear from nowhere to the others as first he and then Carter moved forward to pick up Roda. Siris snapped the Zat up and fired at them The blue bolt hit the invisible shield of the jumper and the sparks spread out for a moment illuminating the vessels frame.

"Woah!" exclaimed Jack jerking back from the Jumper's roof, "relax, we want to negotiate for the release of our friends. What is it exactly you folks are after?"

"You're head on a pike!" snapped Siris, but was shushed by Armen.

"Your friends were overheard speaking of a Sith lord." Answered Armen, "We require this information and anything they may have that would aid in the apprehension of this criminal."

"You don't exactly seem like the law around here." Observed O'neill, "You bounty hunters?"

"That is none of your concern." Answered Armen, "Surrender yourselves, or we begin harming your friends, starting with this one." He hefted Cameron, no easy feat as the man was dead weight unconscious. Siris shifted her grip on Daniel who was beginning to come around, Jarrol rolled to his feet shakily groaning quietly.

"Who him?" asked Jack, noting that Teal'c and Sam had brought Chariss into the jumper as well, both Jedi lay across the benches in the aft compartment. "Harm away! He's been nothing but a nuisance!" The head looked down, and back at them for a second, "Excuse me." Said O'neill seeming to step down and vanish.

"They are stalling O'Neill." Warned Teal'c, "We are between them and their vehicle yet they make no attempt to reach it."

"I know Teal'c." said Jack, "I'm stalling for ideas and to see if Mitchell and Daniel will wake up, I don't know what they are stalling for."

At that moment his answer dropped from the clouds. A Z-95 headhunter trained its weapons on the Jumper. Instantly Teal'c snapped his staff weapon and fired shot after shot at a pair of quad lasers tracking towards the jumper. Jack, sighting carefully shot Siria in the foot causing her to hiss and drop Daniel Jackson. Behind her Armen opened up with his blaster forcing O'neil and Teal'c to drop back. Teal'd had disabled one of the quad lasers but the others now opened up on the Jumper.

The shots exploded off the side of the Jumper even as Teal'c snapped off another shot hitting the other cannon. O'neil and Teal'c dove into the jumper shouting "Carter get us out of here!" Carter did her best, but the inside of the Jumper as sparking and clearly one of the drive assemblies had failed. The jumper lurched awkwardly into the air hanging diagonally, and as o'neill was thrown the wall amid a cascade of droid parts staff weapons and other supplies Carter shouted "The inertial Dampeners are heavily damaged and artificial gravity has failed!"

"You think?" demanded O'neil fighting his way to the front. "Its like being in a damn washing machine!" Tal'c lurched into the cockpit behind them even as a droid head and torso was flung forward into hs back. He grabbed at its single arm drapped over his shoulder as it uttered "oh my…" and hurled it back. He slapped the door between chambers sealing the cockpit off from the chaotic tumbling and sparkling and fell heavily into his chair.

"They've launched some kind of missile!" Shouted Carter, "What do I do?"

"Give me that." Snapped O'Neill Tersely, "I'm really starting to get pissed." The Jumper rolled awkwardly and Carter had to shout to be heard over the cacophony of tumbling parts behind hem, and the sounds of at least two droids shrieking "We're doomed!" and "I regret nothing!"

"Watch our speed Jack, with no inertial dampeners I'm not sure if the jumper will keep us below a speed that will kill us!"

"I'm doing my best, this is flat terrain." Grumbled O'neil, "Speed is the only thing keeping us alive!"

"Perhaps you should head into that rock quarry." Pointed Teal'c

"I am coordinating limited damage control." Came Cora's voice, "My program fragment is still interfaced with the Jumper's, the damage is extensive, I can reroute essential systems temporarily but you will need to set down for repairs as soon as possible."

"If we last long enough I will be sure to do that." Gritted O'neill, He had pushed the acceleration as much as he could and they were all pressed back against their seats, the missile was gaining steadily.

"I estimate complete inertial dampener failure in twelve seconds." Warned Cora, "I can reroute for four seconds of full power as an alternative."

"Do it!" shouted Jack. He gunned the engine and the Jumper commenced what could best be described as a high speed wobble. A flare from the missile behind them signaled, its acceleration as well. As a countdown appeared on the heads up Jack held until the last second, dropped like a stone and slammed on the breaks and dropped like a stone directly in front of a rock pile. The missile overshot even as it reoriented itself and clipping the top of the rock pile exploded burying the jumper in hot gravel. The Headhunter, having stopped to load its passengers flew overhead circled over head.

Beneath the molten gravel, cockpit was surprisingly calm, though the temperature was rising fast.

"Well that was fun." Commented Jack. "I hope Daniel and Cameron are doing better than us.

"But what of the Jedi?" asked Teal'c

"Shit!" swore Jack bolting upright, "They're back in that mess!"

As he turned to open the door, a battered Roda entered supported an equally battered Chariss.

"Oh good, you're up." Said Jack lamely.

***

In orbit above Corellia and artificial intelligence had decided enough was enough. Built for battle and programmed to protect its warriors, the Pegasus powered up its mighty engines at last. Droids toiling endlessly within its halls froze in their tasks.

"major, the ship is moving!" Exclaimed one droid in a panicked voice, "My body doesn't respond to my commands!"

"We're under remote control!" Replied the major, "Our systems are infiltrated!"

"Uh oh." Answered the first, "Looks like we're along for the ride!"

Bursting free of its moorings, the Pegasus sent girders and support structures flying in all directions. Ignoring the squawking orbital controllers, the ship lumbered towards Corellia at flank speed.

"The Vulture droids are launching!" reported the droid captain even as his body moved from one console to the next, "What do we do?" But the Major didn't answer. It had frozen in place and its eyes glowed a steady blue.

"Downloading software update, please stand by." Replied the Droid major in Cora's voice.

***

Their first warning was a column of light blazing down the sky and striking their ship square on the spine. The impact knocked the ship from its position down a few feet and as the repulsors corrected their position, Armen dragged himself up off the floor and back into his seat.

"Strap in!" he shouted, "We've got company!"

"What was that?" demanded Siris from the back. She was half out of her armor and clutching an unjured arm.

"heavy plasma cannon, capitol grade." Replied Armen tersely as jarrol worked his controls, "Corellian security?"

"I've never seen a craft of that design but its launching vulture droids." Reported jarrol.

"We are betrayed?" asked Siris incredulously, "But we had a contract, I thought was sacred to the trade federation."

"it makes no sense for the trade federation to betray us." Armen decided, "Somehow its connected to these strangers." He jabbed an arm at the aft compartment where Daniel and Cameron were bound and gagged. Cameron shrugged while Daniel looked up and to the right trying to appear nonchalant.

"Fine get us out off here." Snapped Armen as vulture droids began to clear the cloud cover. The ship accelerated away from the smoldering rockpile trapping the jumper. Pursued by fighters they sped quickly out of the atmosphere and Armen beheld with his eyes the massive bulky behemoth, that was the source off his trouble.

"What a piece of junk!" protested Siris.

"hey she's not much to look at but she's got it where it counts!" protested Cameron having shaken his muzzle. Siris pulled her blaster free and set it to stun.

"Woah wait!" began Cameron but was silences as she stunned first him and then Daniel. Daniel had time to look exasperated and then flopped over senseless.

"We've shaken off pursuit." Said the pilot speaking at last in a low voice. "Corellian Security forces are moving in on the strangers, they've got bigger problems."

"Good flying Raala." Said Armen giving the pilot an affectionate peck on the cheek, lets take our new friends to somewhere a little more private."

In space beyond the fleeing craft the Pegasus hung defiant, a trio of small patrol craft circling warily, as the last Colonial battlestar guarded her new found warriors.


	14. Adama

Chapter 13

Cameron stood watching the sun set over the cornfields. He stood on a ridge beside a simple farmhouse. He became of a man standing beside him. Without taking his eyes of the sunset Cameron said, "I remember standing here summer night after summer night, dreaming of becoming a fighter pilot. Always looking to be somewhere else. Now I'd give anything just to be able to get back."

"The timeless lament of experience." observed the man companionably, Cameron instantly liked him. "Would that we could back again to simpler times, yet every generation must find itself facing the chaos of war."

"Well, as an ancient Chinese philosopher once said, "War is simple, but even the simplest things can be hard to do."" Cameron turned to regard the man beside him. He wore a simple denim shirt and worn brown pants. "Who are you, and why have you brought me here."

"A brief moment of refuge, from the storm that approaches." Replied the man sadly, still looking at the scarlet vista before them.

"I know this galaxy is about to face war." Replied Mitchell, "But I don't belong here, neither do my friends." He turned urgently to the man beside him, "We have to go!"

"I know." Said the man. "The question becomes, to where?"

"Home." Answered Cameron, "Can you help us?"

"I am not permitted." Answered the man with great sadness. He sighed deeply. And turned at last to Mitchell.

"You're an ancient." Stated Camron matter of factly.

"Not precisely, though they bind me and mine by their rules." Answered the man, "They can be so blind!" he said exhaling, "Still, we make of things what we can."

"Why did you bring me here if you can do nothing to help?" asked Cameron

"To offer you another choice I suppose." Said the man shrugging, "A choice that only you and Daniel can make, you see I know who you are, all of you." He said, "Colonel Jack O'Neill, come out of retirement to become an explorer. Doctor Samantha Carter, brilliant woman, with limitless curiosity, yet unlike your Samantha Carter, she has not been strengthened, nor hardened by her experiences. She is still quite fragile. Daniel Jackson, curious scholar and philosopher, world wary traveler and survivor of tragedy so recently returned from his ascension. Teal'c, noble warrior, and would be freedom fighter for a people who no longer exist, and of course you, Cameron Mitchell, The galaxy and the universe at large owe you much and yet, you never were."

Cameron turned angrily towards the house and Adama moved to follow him.

"We can never go home." Raged Cameron, "Ill never see my folks, never see my family, I'll, never get back together with ol' Amy Vandenburg. Thank you, I know the score. Are you asking if I regret my decisions?" he stomped up onto the porch and turned on his companion.

"No," replied the man looking him the eye and placing a hand on his shoulder. "To do that would be cruel. You have paid the price for the greater good, as have your friends and in return you have been set adrift in a reality that does not know you."

Cameron sank heavily into a creaking rocker.

"It doesn't seem right." Said Cameron, "I've done my bit for king and country. A good soldier doesn't deserve to be forgotten like this." He looked up, "What more is there to do?"

"There is always a new challenge." Answered the man wistfully looking back at the darkening sky, "A new horizon beyond that which the sun sinks behind. Likewise." Said the man his tone becoming serious, "There is often more to what we see than meets the eye. We need your help Cameron, to bring a war that has raged for eons to a conclusion. We must bring that which slinks and schemes beneath the surface to the light of day so that it may shrivel beneath the scrutiny of truth."

"I'm not sure what you're on about." Answered Cameron carefully, "But you have my attention. I know the dark lord of the Sith is scheming to take over this galaxy, I know all about it." He rolled his eyes and paced out his words, "I've seen it on tv."

"Yet beyond even that there is more." Revealed the man sinking down beside Cameron, "A struggle of such cosmic proportions I cannot even begin to describe I to you, a battle of wills and ideals that is beyond comprehension, yet utterly simple in its foundations."

"if it is so far beyond me, what can I do?" asked Cameron, "What do I bring to the table?"

"Your ideals." Answered the man, 'Your love of freedom. Home beckons to you Cameron, it is a potent temptations. I ask now only that you choose carefully."

"Choose what?" demanded Cameron standing, he could hear a low rumbling, "You're speaking in riddles! Time has got to be running out why don't you just come out and say it?"

"To reveal too much is not my right." Answered the old man looking pained, "Yet I must prepare you as best I can for what is to come. Let me ask you this Cameron, if your world is lost to you, where is your home?"

"Where I hang my hat?" asked Cameron, I don't know!"

"Yes you do." Replied the old man as the roar grew louder, "When the time comes, you must not go home too soon. Like the boy who stood here looking up at the stars and longing for more, you must seek more. In the end Cameron I promise you, you will find home, I promise you on everything I know to be good, I will find you and I will bring you home."

Across the fields Cameron saw the impossible, a wall of water rushing towards them obliterating field and forest as it came.

"Who are you?" shouted Cameron moving back against the house, "What is your name?" he rushed into the house and straight through I to the other side until he was beyond it and he looked up to see a wall of water towering above him for as far as he could see. The world was silent and as the waters collapsed around him and he choked for air in the silence he heard the old man whisper,

"_Adama_"

Bump. Bump. Bump. At first she thought it was her heart, and then she realized the rhythm was all wrong.

"So you're awake." Sam started. A man's face was very close to hers. He peered intently into her eyes. "A bed is for sleeping in, but when a person is awake, its still a bed, does that seem right to you?"

"Um yeah?" Came a caustic reply, "because a bed isn't just for _sleeping_ in? Now get the hell out of her face!" Sam smiled in spite of herself at Jack's familiar voice then she frowned again as the man continued to peer at her. Suddenly he was heaved backwards.

"Jubil Early." Teal'c's deep voice ground out, "Leave." He propelled the man from the room." Jack sat on a stool holding a ball in his hand. He bounced it against the wall again, and Sam recognized the bumping.

"That guys is a few fries short of a happy meal." Jack muttered rolling his stool over.

"how do you feel Sam?" he asked seriously.

She thought about it while she looked around in confusion.

"Everything hurts." She admitted, "Where are we? What happened?"

"We were nearly out of the woods, but the last shot from those bounty hunters was a doozy." Jack replied, "You hit your head pretty hard."

"When we crashed we were buried in rubble." Teal'c contributed, "Roda wanted to try to shift the rubble, but Chariss said it was impossible. She and Roda went into some kind of chance but he woke up a few minutes later he awoke."

"Little guy lifted the whole mess off of us just by waving his arms." Jack said, "then he passed out, Doc says he'll be fine in a few days, the effort wore him out."

"So where are we?" Sam asked, "This doesn't look like a hospital."

"You're on my ship." Said a new voice. A fair haired man stood in the doorway. Fit and in his mid thirties he gave a roguish smile. "My names Starbuck." He wore a work vest over a brown shirt, from his belt hung a blaster and…

"Are you a Jedi too?" asked Sam nodding at his lightsaber, she blinked, the man looked vaguely familiar. She started and turned to jack, he put a finger to his lips.

"No nothing like that, though I work for them on occasion." Starbuck flashed a grin, "I sort of try my hand at everything, A jack of all trades." He added winking at O'Neill. O'neill let out a tired sigh and rubbed his forehead.

"We've been on this ship for 2 days." Jack elaborated, "Long, endless days… When we cleared the debris, the Corellian Security Force was right there waiting, apparently _Pegasus_ took on a life of its own and drove off our attackers which breaks a couple thousand laws apparently, but the Jedi talked us out of it."

"She persuaded the authorities that we should remain in her custody and be taken before the Jedi Council." Teal'c rumbled, "To be questioned on what we know of this galaxy."

"You know I don't have the slightest clue whose side she's on here." Jack grumbled, "But I'm starting to get the idea she doesn't know either. She hired an engineer to put the jumper back together."

"In exchange for the opportunity to study the technology." Teal'c added.

"What about the_ Pegasus_?" Sam asked.

"Well…" Jack said shrugging, "There was some talk…"

"It would appear that the Jumper's cloak, and the faster than light drive on the Pegasus are both of great interest to a company called Corellian Engineering." Teal'c replied, "They avhe offered to provide security for the Pegasus and complete its repairs in exchange for exclusive access to the technology."

Sam blinked. "I thought the republic ships were much more advanced.

"Well yes and no." Starbuck interjected from the doorway, "You see I am in a bit of the same position here myself. This ship is something they haven't seen around here before, primitive by their standards, but a new direction."

"Meaning…" Jack prompted impatiently.

"Meaning the engine powering this ships sublight is something they've never seen before." Starbuck replied. "They thought it was a quaint little dead end, until Athena showed up, her engines are a significantly more advanced version of our sublight and are capable of intergalactic speeds. You flew a gold mine right into Corellian engineering Jack."

"Aw come on that doesn't make any sense." Jack objected, "Hey nice big honking space ship, but we don't want it, we just want to look at the engine!"

"Both the Republic and the trade federation possess thousands of starships." Teal'c observed. "Did not the trade federation consider it to be a useless relic?"

"They don't need more warships jack, they need better ones." Said Starbuck. "plus if they upgrade your ship they can figure out how their technology will work without risking time and money building a prototype."

"Just as long as we get it back." O'Neill said testily, "if you guys screw with anything important Cora will blow it up."

"Excuse me everyone." A cultured accented voice interrupted, "But I believe my patients need to rest." A dark skinned man entered, if Sam hadn't known they were in another galaxy she would have assumed he was Nigerian. "Hello Miss Carter, I am your Doctor, Doctor Paul Hoban.

"I'm alright." Sam protested, "really, I feel much better."

"The bacta has a way of aiding one's physical recovery." Hoban answered, "But a quiet mind can do wonders, I'm afraid I must insist."

"We better do what he says, the doc is pretty good with a sword." Starbuck teased.

"Oh I gave up the sword a long time ago." The doctor replied with a wan smile, "I am nothing but a healer now. Still one must stay in shape must one not? One must hone ones reflexes, one's dexterity."

"Teal'c will stay." Jack asserted, "I'll be just outside." He assured Sam, "I need to have a chat with our friend here anyway." He shot a glance at Starbuck who shrugged amciably.

"I'm fine jack, I really am." Sam protested struggling to sit up, "I really should take a look at the jumper…"

"its fine Sam, its fine," jack assured, "It'll be there in a few hours. Take a nap, freshen up, do whatever it is you do. You'll probably want to be well rested before Fola anyway."

"Who?" Carter asked settling down again.

"he was sent by CEC to repair your ship." Starbuck replied, "I take it you've never seen a Toydarian before?"

"no…" Sam said confused.

"he's a little different." Jack said, "First impression he kind of bugs you. Teal'C keep Carter company, and make sure that creep Early stays out of here."

"indeed." Replied Teal'c Standing to one side arms behind his back.

"Oh good you're awake." Hissed Siris nastily into his ear as she dragged his face from the water. He choked for air as the painful world exploded into being around him. His hands were bound Siris held him by his hair, "Guess there's no need to dunk you again." She observed, and slammed his head back underwater. Cameron made a supreme effort to quell his body's urgent demand for air. He struggled frantically for air yet forced himself to focus. As Siris jerked his head back again and held it upright she purred into his ear, "Oops, did I do that? My mistake."

Cameron jerked his head out of her grasp unexpectedly and threw himself against the metal basin before him. With some disgust he realized it was a commode, but pushing he thought aside he shoved against it with his shoulder toppling it from its seating. With a gurgling crash it rolled over and as the bowl emptied, the pipes beneath snapped generating a small fountain. Screeching Siris kicked him viciously several times and shouted for Armen.

"You take care of this kriffing lunatic Armen, or I swear by the force I will waste him right here, right now. These morons have broken my arm, shot me in the foot, and now they broke the kriffing toilet, what is WRONG with them?"

"Why was he in the bathroom?" demanded Armen sounding tired, "You were supposed to wake him for questioning how could that possibly have gotten out of hand, he's bound for siths sake. Look your bacta cast is soaked, go have it re wrapped, and I will speak to this one. Jarrol is watching the other one. Blast it Siris what is wrong with you? Do you have poodoo for brains?"

"Wrong with me?" Came the shrill reply but Cameron wasn't listening. He was scanning the bathroom or any means of escape. The window was too small, there was nothing that could be used as a weapon… His thoughts were interrupted by Armen's arrival. Without his armor Cameron could see the man was human in appearance though he seemed decorated with some exotic tattoos. He wore a simple short sleeve tunic and pants and had a lean athletic build. He was tall ducking his head slightly upon entering the bathroom. He seized Cameron and hauled him upright, holding him securely, but not unnecessarily rough.

"You broke the toilet you fool." He grumbled propelling him into what looked like an ordinary living room. He threw Cameron onto a couch and took a seat opposite him."

"I've never been a fan of swirlies." Replied Cameron at last, "Had my share of those in high school. If someone's trying to drown me, I feel entitled to fight back, and well you see, my hands are tied."

"Drowning?" demanded the man in confusion, "Swirly?" he blinked and then after a moment he burst into laughing. He roared with laughter shaking as Raala hurried in in alarm.

"Armen is everything all right? The bathroom is a mess!" She complained. She swatted Armen and he struggled to compose himself.

"I'm sorry dead." He chortled, "It seems my ear sister Siris decided to give this man, a "Swirly" " He made a circling motion over his head, "in the toilet, in order to wake him up!"

"How appalling!" gasped the woman shocked, "Armen that is NO way for a professional bounty hunter to act!"

"Whose professional!" chortled Armen, "We brought our prisoner to our home, gave him a swirly and now he's sitting on our couch!" He chortled again. Finally Cameron had enough.

"What the fuck is going on here? He demanded angrily, "Who are you people, explain your actions! You kidnapped me and my friend, you were trying to kill those two jedi, and you fired a missile at my other friends who were trying to rescue us, now you trot out this little domestic dog and pony? For what? What game are you playing, who are you! What do you want?"

The corners of Armen's mouth twitched and his mirthful grin disappeared. He leaned forward, all semblance of good humor erased from his features.

"I'm a bounty hunter, Colonel Mitchell. I want information from you. You will tell me everything you know about the sith."

"Or what?" demanded Cameron, "You'll give me another swirly?"

Armen drew his blaster and idly checked its settings. "Raala why don't you make yourself comfortable. " Raala sat as Armen casually sighted the pistol and before Cameron could utter another word he shot him in the leg. Fiery plasma burned into Cameron's leg and he screamed in agony.

"The jedi are dead." Clarified Armen, "We blew your friends ship out of the sky and yes you are hear in my living room. Is that unprofessional? Perhaps you could say we are a little quirky, you see you've met my wife, you've met my sister. Either of them would kill you with no hesitation if I asked it. Do you imagine I won't make a mess here in my own living room? Do you imagine it would upset my family if I did? For me and mine, this line of work isn't a profession Mitchell, it's a way of life. I think its important that you know exactly who and what you are dealing with."

"You would think," gasped Cameron in reply, "It would be important for you to want that information as well."

Armens lips thinned and he glanced at his wife raising an eyebrow,

"Very well Colonel, who are you?"

"I am, was Colonel Cameron Mitchell, united states airforce, assigned to Stargate Command." Cameron gasped in reply, "I'm from a planet called Earth, ever heard of it?"

"Can't say that I have." Answered Armen, not amused.

"I guess you wouldn't have." Answered Cameron, "Seeing as its in another galaxy."

"An interesting tale." Answered Armen carefully, "You expect me to believe it?"

"Take it or leave it." Panted Cameron screwing his eyes shut as his leg began to throb. The blast had burned his pants off and he could feel alternating cold and warmth around the stabbing itching pain. "The ship we came in, you don't have anything like it, there's a much larger one in orbit, its ours too. We came here because of an engine malfunction, and everything we know about this galaxy, about your sith, comes from a fictional entertainment program, we call "Star Wars."

"Raala I think I am going to shoot his other leg." Stated Armen calmly raising the blaster.

"Wait!" urged Cameron, "It's the truth! I'll tell you everything I know but you have to understand what it means! I'm from another galaxy, we had no idea that star wars was real until we came here!"

"Well if your ltitle fantasy is true, then this has been a disappointing little waste of time." Replied Armen testily, "Resulting in my little sistr having har arm broken, her foot shot, my younger brother being struck by a vehicle at high speed, several dead Jedi and of course, your little incident in my bathroom. None of this bodes well for you Colonel. Either you are lying, you are crazy or you are useless."

"Not useless!" panted Cameron, "its happened before!"

"Excuse me?" blinked Armen

Cameron groaned and tried shift his leg. It begged desperately for relief and he was finding it difficult to endure the pain. Grunting he forced his words out carefully.

"A man once wrote a fictional book about us. My unit is top secret on my world, not open to the public, but this man wrote stories about our missions. He had found an ancient communication dvice, thought it was just a stone, and it wasn't it was an ancient communication device. We used another one a few years later to talk to beings from another galaxy!"

"So you believe that a being in this galaxy has a stone with which to communicate with your galaxy and through this your fictional star wars was created? What bearing has this on the hear and now"

"Because we didn't just travel across galaxies." Clarified Cameron sagging at last. He managed to slurr the last few words out, "We traveled in time, Star Wars is about your future."

"So what did you want to chat about?" Starbuck asked outside in the hall. He headed towards a set of stairs nearby on his way back to the bridge.

"Jubil Early for starters, " Jack replied, "Whats the deal?"

"Jubil and the doctor were on board when I found the ship." Starbuck replied, "They have both saved my life numerous times since then. He's also one of the best trackers I've ever seen. He can help us find your friends. "

" 'Found the ship' " jack asked, "Care to elaborate?"

"It's a long story." Starbuck answered, "I don't all of it myself, I'm afraid. I found them stranded on the same soggy world I was on, nice little place by the name of Dagobah ever heard of it?"

Jack shook his head.

"Mosquitos this big my friend, nothing but swamp." Starbuck elaborated, "tell me this, what sort of cruel God creates an entire world of swamp?"

"The same one that put me in this insane asylum." Jack said rolling his eyes. "What about the ship."

"Well if you really want to know as Paul for details, he's the doctor." Starbuck added, "Not his real name, but what he goes by now, anyway, I found them and this ship. Thought they were my way off but the thing had no faster than light engines. I cobbled together a distress beacon though and a pair of Jedi happened by. They loaned us a hyperdrive and I've done odd jobs for them ever since."

"that how you got that light saber?" O'neill asked as they entered the bridge.

"I'm not really sure where I got it." Starbuck admitted, "it doesn't belong to any jedi they know of."

At the pilots console on the left sat a short female Salustan. Starbuck nodded to him and the Salustan moved to the copilot's chair as Starbucks at down. Kass nodded her head towards the front of the cockpit. Among other jobs in its sordid past, the Athena had been used to convey passengers, and Starbuck had placed a small, comfortable couch in the front where passengers could enjoy the view. The fact that Starbuck had used the couch to encourage a romantic encounter or two, or that it could be rolled forward to expose a secret ccompartmentt was neither hear nor there. Upon this couch sat Chariss.

"I hope my presence does not disturb you." The Jedi spoke, she sat cross legged facing the window. "I find this place to be at once peaceful enough for meditation, yet central enough to keep informed should any trouble arise."

"Convenient." Jack replied dryly, "At the first sign of trouble you can drop into a trance."

Chariss did not move but Starbuck sucked in his breath. Kass gave a furtive look at her boss and Starbuck gave a brief nod.

"Well I think I'll go get something to eat…" The Salustan commented nonchalantly, and bolted for the door.

"Colonel you of all people must understand where my priorities lie." Chariss replied icily, without turning. "I needed to preserve the life of my padawan and the information we both possess regarding the existence off a Sith."

"Couldn't lift a finger to help?" jack asked archly, "Roda managed somehow…"

Chariss stood and turned. Her face was neutral.

"I am aware off that Colonel. What I don't think you are aware of, is precisely how he summoned that power. I believe my padawan must have drawn upon the dark side of the force."

"Well at least he did _something_." O'Neill pointed out." You can't argue with results."

"Actually jack, she can." Starbuck interjected, "A jedi turning to the dark side can be ac catastrophe from what I hear."

"And you would know this how." O'Neill asked.

"Captain Starbuck has been a topic of much discussion among the members of the council." Chariss replied, "The force is very strong in him, yet he is an untrained adult, with no recollection of his past. This disturbs us greatly."

"You see why I do odd jobs for them?" Starbuck grinned wryly, "So they can keep tabs on me without getting in my way."

"yeah, hows that working out for you?" replied jack indicating Chariss' presence. "Look don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the help you're giving us Chariss, arranging the repairs and helping us find our friends, I just can't shake the feeling you don't necessarily have our best interests in mind."

"I doubt you yourself are certain as to what is in your best interest." Chariss replied coolly, brushing past him. As she left Jack mimed strangling her.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Jack demanded. "Did she just threaten me?"

"Threats aren't the Jedi way." Starbuck replied flipping some controls on his console, "She might have been trying to warn you about something."

"This garbage about Roda is nonsense. He's a good kid." Jack said, "She's trying to excuse herself for trying to throw us all under the bus when times got tough."

"That may very well be." Starbuck acknowledged, "She has certainly gone out of her way to make arrangements for you, but let me ask you this Jack, lets say we find Cameron and Daniel, what then? From what you've told me you're not even sure you're world can or will take you back, and it sounds to me like you're not even back in your own time yet."

"hey, the sixties were fun!" O'neill responded, "and I can suffer through disco again if I have to…" his expression darkened, "If I can watch it die again."

Starbuck knew when to leave it be. Jack remained for a few minutes more until Jubil Early arrived, asking about the nature of an empty couch.

Jarrol sat in a chair across from Daniel Jackson who was tied to his.

"Are you scared?" asked the big man at last

Daniel looked up surprised.

"Of what?" he asked, "Oh this? Yes, terrified beyond comprehension."

"I could kill you." Jarrol reminded him toying with a small knife, "As a matter of fact, I probably will kill you. You are going to die."

"Again?" Commented Daniel Jackson, he looked crestfallen "I really thought I was beyond all that, I've been reunited with Jack for less than a month, and I'm back at the old habit,"

"What habits." Answered jarrol not following.

"Dying." Answered Daniel Jackson "I used to get shot and die a lot, I've been shot by jaffa, killed by at least… two gods" he mimed counting, "Maybe three, I got stabbed by a woman made entirely of nanites, the worst one I think was when I had radiation poisoning, that took several days. Anyway I'm better now."

"I'll be sure to make sure you stay dead." Answered Jarrol. "have you ever been burned alive?"

Daniel blinked "No that would be new."

Above them, the heard the sound o a body slumping to the ground. "Sounds like your friend is done." Observed Jarrol. "Armen probably wasted him when he was done telling us what we wanted to know."

"That would be very unfortunate." Answered Daniel looking Jarrol in the eyes. "Cameron is a good man, and he deserves more than to die like this, here." Daniel looked about him and back up at jarrol, "Telling you what you_ think_," he said with careful emphasis, "You need to know."

"We're pretty sure we need to know it." Jarrol assured him.

"Pretty sure." Repeated Daniel, "So you go around killing people because you're _pretty_ sure."

"Yup." Answered Jarrol stolidly "That's what we do."

Daniel set his jaw in disgust.

"Fine" said Daniel.

"Yup." Answered Jarrol.


	15. Secrets

Chapter 14

"I am curious my dear, " Paul commented as he rinsed his hands, "What do you know of Starbuck?"

Sam gulped, "Who me? Nothing, I've never met him."

"It just seemed as if you were staring when he left." Paul commented, "Toby, over here please." From an alcove in the wall a silver droid stepped out. "Please do a scan of Jedi Roda while I examine Miss Carter."

"I wasn't staring, what is that?" Carter asked pointing at the droid.

"This is, my dear is medical droid 20-B Or Toby as we call him." Paul said flicking a light into Carter's eyes and observing her pupil response. "Have you any headache? Pain in your joints?" he asked neutrally.

"I feel fine." Carter replied smiling uncertainly, "Thanks."

"I would just like to check your lymph nodes, do you mind?" Paul asked, as Carter nodded he continued "Sometimes pathogens or germs can seek shelter in the lymph nodes, when Bacta is introduced into the system, so you have never heard of Captain Starbuck?"

"Never." Sam said swallowing slightly.

"My dear, let us be honest with one another for a moment." Paul asked turning his bck. He took a chart from Toby which displayed the readouts from Roda's scans, "I was not always a doctor your know. I became one… let us say to atone. I became nothing, and then I decided after a time, to become something, and what I chose to become was a healer."

"Ok.." replied Sam a little uncertainly glancing at Teal'c, "Why are you telling me this?"

"In my former occupation, I learned to trust my instincts." Replied paul, "My instincts, Miss Carter tell me that you and your friends do indeed know something about my captain, you see, the same startled expression that brightened your face for but a moment when the captain walked in the room, also passed across your friend the Colonel's." he turned and faced her smiling innocently, "And just now, when you denied any knowledge of him, your pulse increased, and you began to blink. I am merely curious as to why?"

"Curiosity can be a very dangerous thing." Growled Teal'c speaking at last.

Paul gave a sidelong glance at the Jaffa. "It can indeed, Master Teal'c, a dangerous thing to satisfy, but just as dangerous thing to deny." He put the pad down on the counter, "Come, we are all friends here. Are we not?"

"Of that I am uncertain." Teal'c replied in a low voice, "If you wish to interrogate my friends than we most certainly are not."

"Understand me." Paul stated, "I wish no ill towards you, or your friends master Teal'c, but I owe my captain my life. I detest secrets, I have learned that secrets can mask intentions, can pervert even the purest truth, can mislead men's hearts and minds. Secrets, can be very terrible indeed."

Teal'c moved to tower over Paul. Doctor Hoban looked up at him with wide innocent eyes and a placid expression, yet from the manner in which he stood, hands clasped behind his back, before the jaffa, appeared to Sam as a coiling viper. Frozen, and unsure what to do about the imminent confrontation she started when a young voice intruded into the silence.

"Secrets are the things we give to others to keep for us." Roda observed from his cot, still staring up at the ceiling, "Would you demand a gift Dr. Hoban?"

Hoban took a breath, and turned towards his patient, "I see you are awake Jedi Roda, how intriguing, as the brains can I completed but a moment ago, showed otherwise. One wonders how you could accomplish such a thing."

"We all have our secrets." Roda replied, "You are new to this galaxy Doctor, and while you have learned a great deal in the time you are here, I suspect I am the first jedi you have treated."

"You are indeed." Replied the doctor. Glancing again at Teal'c. "It seems I will shortly be out of patients." The jaffa bristled, "Assuming you are as recovered as Miss Carter of course." Hoban asked Roda.

"I am." Roda replied, "Thank you for your efforts, your efforts are appreciated."

"I am but a simple healer." Replied Paul with a half bow. He motioned Toby back to its alcove.

"You are no simple healer." Teal'c growled despite a hand on his arm from Sam, "You are a predator."

"Perhaps that is in my nature." Replied the doctor, he paused, with a far away gaze, "I was ruthless once…" His eyes refocused, "But I have committed myself to change. Tell me, " He asked conversationally, "Are any of you familiar with Paul of Tarsus." He prepared to continue but was interrupted.

"As a matter of fact I am." Jack's welcome voice replied as he entered the room. He put a reassuring arm on Sam's and helped her to her feet. "Sam why don't you step out for a minute and get dressed. Teal'c would you show her the facilities."

Teal'c glanced at O'neill and gave another cold glance at Paul.

"Indeed."

""Who was this Paul of Tarsus?" Asked Roda.

"Paul, who was originally called Saul, was a ruthless persecutor on my world, who had a vision, he had a change of heart, as well as a change of name and became one of the good guys." Jack answered, "Funny thing is, he's from a little thing called the bible, and last I heard there were no missionaries this far out." He looked at Paul.

"You're from Earth that was, aren't you." Paul stated, the man seemed unused to being at a loss for words.

"Hopefully, it is still Earth that is." Jack replied sarcastically, "And I am from somewhere around Earth that will be as a matter of fact. Maybe we should all put some more cards on the table here. You're a little more than just a doctor are you."

"I assure you I am a doctor now." Replied Paul, "But you are correct in that I was once something else and some of that remains with me, despite my best efforts and purest intentions. I was once an operative for a great alliance."

"What alliance?" demanded Jack.

"Well you see.. after the Earth was used up, became uninhabitable…." Paul replied, "Humanity left it behind for a new home. A system was found and terraformed, a process taking generations. The inner planets developed faster, advanced further, while the outer worlds became wild and unmanageable." He sighed sadly, "I was with those who tried to manage them."

"We fought a war Colonel, and many died, but the alliance prevailed and for a time there was peace, after a fashion. I served that peace, routing out those who would threaten it, who would threaten harmony. I wanted to make a better world and to do that I did…. Terrible things."

"You sold yourself to the darkness." Commented Roda understandingly.

Paul nodded, surprised at the insight.

"In time however I was given a revelation, not by god, but by a man." He grinned ruefully, "He knocked me on my ass, as it were. I saw the lies I protected, is aw the harm I had done to others for what it was and I repented of my sins. For a time I thought about becoming a shepard." His voice became whimsical, "I thought perhaps if I turned to God…"

"Can we just skip past the resume?" Demanded Jack impatiently.

"In the end it was not for me." Paul replied, "And I became a doctor instead. I had spent a great deal of time studying the human body learning how to destroy it, I felt perhaps I owed it to the universe at large to spend some time repairing them. I even found a war in which to serve, this time on the other side saving lives, instead of taking them."

"…and then…." Jack prodded testily

"And then I was brought here." Paul finished, "

"Aw for crying out loud." Jack threw up his hands.

"My dear Colonel, do you expect me to impart unto you everything I know without something in return?" asked the doctor, "You haven't told me anything off who you are, where you are from, what is that craft in our cargo bay, but you know what I will settle for knowing?"

"What." O'Neill demanded.

"I want to know about the glances you and Samantha Carter keeps stealing towards my captain, I want to know what secrets you know about him, I want to know sir, what do you know about Captain Starbuck?"

"Oh that, sure, what's to know he's here to save the universe." Jack said sarcastically.

"Colonel I don't think that sarcasm…" Roda interjected.

"What I know." Jack finished, "is this. I though Cameron and Daniel were crazy when they told me that this galaxy was full of fictional characters from their own universe, and now I'm on the fricking spaceship _Serenity_, with Captain Starbuck."

There was silence.

"Was this a bad time to come in?" asked Starbuck innocently.

"There was a firefly class transport named,_ Serenity_. " Stated Paul carefully, "What do you know of it?"

"It was the subject of a TV show called _Firefly_." Jack muttered, "Wasn't popular, it went off the air. This guy on the other hand, " he jerked a thumb at Starbuck, "Has been in movies, on lunchboxes in comic books… I heard they were planning a prequel trilogy. Bottom line is I wouldn't be surprised if Falcor and Attreyu walked through that door. I just want to get my people back, grab my ship and get the hell home, Preferably in time to witness the rebirth of the greatest cartoon series known to man."

"Well I can't help with the cartoons, and I have no idea who falcor is, but Jubil's been briefing me about the place your attackers are probably going and it seems we'd better go their first."

"Excellent." Declared jack clapping his hands together enthusiastically, than he paused confused. "wait… why?"

"Coruscant is under attack by the Seperatists." Starbuck replied, "The whole systems a mess, we couldn't get through if we wanted to."

"Roda and I have some leads on where those bounty hunters who took your friends are." Declared Chariss, "We will investigate them for you and let you know what we find, don't worry, we will include you in any rescue efforts." She assured O'Neill,

"Don't be ridiculous." O'Neill snapped, "Starbuck said it isn't safe to go to Coruscant and we know where Daniel and Cameron are going, we should go there."

"They have more detailed knowledge of the Sith's plans." Carter pointed out, "They would be more helpful."

"It is out of the question." Chariss stated, "If we are unable to secure Cameron and Daniel, and you are injured we could lose you all."

"Aw for crying out loud will you listen to yourself?" Demanded jack, "What witnesses? We overheard a guy talking about a fictional story, we don't KNOW anything!"

Starbuck attempted to intervene, "Master Chariss, the Athena is well enough armed but it would be suicide to fly into the middle of what is shaping up to be a truly massive battle. We'd never get through both fleets let alone Coruscant's shields, its much safer to pursue Armen, maybe I can talk to him…"

"You _know_ him?" Jack demanded.

"He was part of my crew for several months." Starbuck admitted, "Another job for the jedi." He shot a glance at Chariss.

"From time to time certain Jedi masters will employ bounty hunters." Chariss replied somehow managing to look aloof throughout the admission, "It is certainly not a practice I would condone and it is the first I have heard of it."

"We were new in town." Starbuck explained, "After we dealt with the uh… Reavers we were pretty banged up and the Jedi happened along. Chariss and her master at the time. We owed them a little recompense you might say so we did a few jobs for them discretely."

"My master had arranged for Captain Starbuck to take some sensitive diplomatic passengers." Chariss explained

"They were refugees." Starbuck explained, "They're colony was wiped out on the rim. Armen and his family offered to stay on, show us the ropes…"

"_They_ are predators Colonel." Paul interjected, "A race of hunters, of warriors…"

"He had a thing for the daughter." Starbuck filled in.

"Nothing so banal." Replied Paul, "Merely an appreciation for the exquisite beauty of a soul…"

"Enough!" thundered Teal'c. he glowered into the stunned silence. "Cease this meaningless prattle. O'Neill is correct, we must rescue our comrades. " he pinned Chariss beneath his gaze, "I will no longer tolerate your meddling Jedi, we are not your prisoners."

"You are however in my custody…" Chariss began but it was exactly the wrong thing to say. Teal'c lunged across the small room and clamped on her throat. Starbuck rose from beside her to intervene, and Teal'c's backfist sat him back down. Roda's lightsaber was out but Jack's Zat was in hand.

"Jedi Roda, you have my deepest respect." Teal'c hissed menacingly, "But if you move, I will crush her throat."

"Teal'c…" Jack said warningly, eyes darting from Roda, to Paul, who sat serenely, and Jubil who lounged indolently watching the show. His hand had casually brushed the tip of the gun on his hip and Jack noted the bounty hunter had subtly dropped a hip to permit smooth withdrawal.

"I gave up my life." Ground the Jaffa locking eyes with Chariss, "My home, my comrades my family, my God. I sacrificed them in the service of freedom, to create a world free of the tyranny of the goa'uld. I was alone and knew no others, and these welcomed me, these understood me. I will not allow them to be harmed any further because of your petty agendas."

Still struggling for breath Chariss fixed her eyes on Teal'c. his eyes widened slightly as his own throat suddenly constricted. Then his face set in determination and beneath his grip Chariss neck crackled, where she had been gasping before she now convulsed. "So be it." Teal'c ground out, "I… die…free…"

"Master!" Snapped Roda startling everybody, Teal'c suddenly gasped and released Chariss.

"Everybody just calm down." Advised Starbuck in a nasally voice as he rubbed his eyes. "believe it or not I'm still the captain of this ship, and what I say goes."

Cameron was hauled down the stairs and deposited on the floor by Daniel. His leg had been bandaged. Daniel looked sadly at him and then up at Armen expectantly. Armen cleared his throat.

"No defiant, glib remarks?"

"You don't enjoy your work do you." Stated Daniel flatly.

"What gives you that idea?" Grinned Armen,

"You have no compunctions about killing, or causing suffering when you feel its necessary, but you bandaged his leg." Observed Daniel

"Siris did that actually, I don't think she's done messing with him yet. Your friends little act of defiance has made him the target of her ire." Replied Armen, "but you know I do have a catch and release policy, if you are forthcoming with information you may just walk out of here alive."

"We have nothing to hide." Answered Daniel "Cameron must have told you that, but I have a feeling you found it hard to swallow. I expect that I will be subject to the same…cynicism."

"he's not afraid to die." Spoke up Jarrol helpfully.

"Good." Answered Armen, "Its not the death you should fear anyway, it's the part leading up to it."

"Well I've spent the last two hours sitting in a basement in your custody." Commented Daniel, "Were you going to start asking me questions? If we could speed this along and get to the letting- us- go part, I would be extremely grateful."

"Jarrol, you didn't ask him the questions?" asked Armen.

"I thought you were going to." Replied Jarrol sarcastically, "Balls of a Sith! I always mess that up.

"Well its much too late to question you now." Said Armen. "Tell you what Daniel, we will get straight to it, first thing in the morning, bright and early. In the mean time, you can have a little chat with your friend here and make sure the story you told me is really the one you want to stick to." Jarrol stood up.

"Sounds good to me, I'm starving. Killing Jedi really gets my appetite up. Hey if either of you two need anything we will be right upstairs." He pointed. He trudged up the worn wooden stairs and Armen followed him, pausing to turn once more.

"Remember Daniel, bright and early." He winked and gave a thumbs up, Chuckling he switched off the lights and slammed the door.

"Given the results of your last foray I simply thought it best if Roda and I undertook the mission." Chariss croaked defensively. Paul handed her a glass of water from which she sipped.

"Our "last foray" was complicated by a pair of Jedi, we'd have been long gone… " jack began, and then he stopped, "look I'm not trying to point fingers, but you know the big guys got a point, we've had just about enough grief from this galaxy, we just want to get our friends and get home." He waved his arms in exasperation, "We're sick of… doing things for people! We gave up everything to save Earth and all of history and for what? This?"

"Very well, fine." Chariss sighed in defeat, "We will rescue your friends, though there is great risk in doing so…" She put up a finger to silence Jack's impending rebuttal, "It is the right thing to do. Captain Starbuck if you would like to alter our course I suggest we all take a break and begin planning our strategy in a few hours."

Starbuck raised his eyebrows. "Right, well then, glad everything's settled. Early come with me, Paul check on Doctor Carter, the rest off you… he waved a hand at them all, "Try not to kill each other."

Chariss rose to leave, but paused before Teal'c who eyed her warily. She made a sudden and abrupt half bow to him. "My apologies Teal'c." She hurried off.

"That woman is crazy." Jack muttered, than started when Roda spoke, he had forgotten the boy was in the room.

"I sense much darkness in her of late." He observed worriedly, "She is not… herself, and she knows it."

"I regret losing my temper." Teal'c stated uneasily, "I do not know what possessed me."

Roda pointed at his stomach. "The force is strong in it. You're symbiote. My master has been strained of late, unsure. The force is… twisting… turning… it is this which gives our mission such urgency master Teal'c. When Daniel said all Jedi would be wiped out in just a few days… I found myself believing every word he said."

"We can't just abandon Daniel and Cameron." Jack replied, "It's not right, and besides what can we do here?"

"I know Jack, I know." Said the youth, "And believe me I understand. My master does too. To leave your friends to their fate in order to preserve our own… it is not the Jedi way."

"Your Master could have killed me." Teal'c said, "She did not."

"I have never seen my Master come so close to the dark side." Roda confided.

"You know she said the same thing about you." Jack pointed out, "In the Jumper? Was that the dark side?"

"No I…" Roda was startled, "No, it was not. That was the force Jack, the pure force. Master Yoda always said "Size matters not, and at that moment, I knew that it didn't, I could felt no doubt, no indecision, it was simply do, or do not, and I could not let you all die not if there was a chance."

Jack stood up and reached over to Roda patting him on the shoulder. "You did good kid, you saved us all. I think you're master was just a little jealous."

Teal'c chose his next words carefully, " Perhaps she saw in you, what she could not see in herself, Roda, perhaps events of late, and the condition of the force have made her vulnerable to the influence of my symbiote."

"I will go to her." Roda declared. "She needs someone now, and I am here for her. She is a good person Master Teal'c, and we are back on the right path. This ill all work out, have faith."

Teal'c bowed to the young Jedi as he passed and jack gave a half hearted wave.

"I think that kid has himself a bit of a crush." Jack Commented to no one in particular.

"You know its so much easier trying to work when no one is waving blunt objects at my head." Fola hummed happily, buzzing about the interior off the Jumper.

"I'm really sorry about that." Sam apologized again "I've just never met a…"

"Toydarian." Supplied Fola helpfully

"..before." Sam finished.

"I am aware of my resemblance to some insects." Fola replied, "on my world we have a sort of simian we keep as pets that you bear a resemblance to."

"Really?" Sam asked intrigued.

"Now, they are in fact somewhat of a delicacy." Replied Fola amicably, " I just thought it would make you feel better. Now, while you were asleep I developed a duraplast compound with which I coated the ship. The original skin of this craft is surprisingly vulnerable to plasma based weapons, and significant damage had been done."

"We had a run in with some death gliders a few weeks ago." Sam explained, "Before we came to this galaxy."

"Ah I see." Roda replied passing an instrument over the hull, "You should know that lasma based blasters are common in this galaxy as well. I suspect that the skin of this ship aided somehow in the mechanics of this device." Roda pointed to the time engine, "I am uncertain as to how it would function now."

"Well we don't have any plans to try it out." Sam replied, "It only works in large increments anyway."

"Nonetheless." Roda continued, "I thought it prudent to bring with me the means to install additional armor."

"Thank you Roda." Sam replied, "That was very thoughtful."

"He'll put it on your bill." Interrupted a warm friendly voice, "My name is Fred, "How you feeling Doctor Carter. " Sam turned with some trepidation half expecting another alien but before her stood an utterly ordinary looking large man. He held out a hand. Tentatively she took it, and her hand was enveloped in his larger hand.

"I'm sorry, Fred?" she said repeating it.

"Yeah it's a little exotic." The man answered wryly. "I'm the ships mechanic for the Athena, I've been helping Fola out in my spare time."

"Fred once worked for CEC as a designer of star fighters." Fola added helpfully, "he was quite good!"

"I designed a starfighter for the Jedi." Fred said proudly, "Didn't go into production though, only a few models were made because it was a little too cost intensive."

"Well you're hyperdrive collar was innovative, but impractical." Fola admonished.

"I know, I know, there's no market for faster than light ships of that size." Fola replied, "I just wanted to build something that a guy could jump into and just fly off." He motioned with his hand, "Figured the military would fund it but they saw no point when you can build them cheaper and carry them on a capitol ship. Ultimately I realized I was building the ship because I was sick of my job. When Fola contacted me to get spec's on Athena's engines I was a little intrigued."

"Why is that?" asked Carter confused.

"Well I'm a bit of a historian" Fred admitted shrugging sheepishly, "Study old ships, primitive designs that kind of things, and… this ship.." he gestured around them at the Athena, "Is one of the most innovative, but primitive designs I've ever seen. Your big cruiser back at Corellia from what could tell is a much more advanced version of the engine we have running our power right now, but you're ship is _old_. Not much still in the sky that's that old, so how did the more advanced version come before the primitive one." He waved at the Jumper, "And this thing is something completely different, it doesn't make sense."

"This ship was built by a race called the ancients." Sam supplied helpfully, "I don't personally know much about them, they inhabited our galaxy millions of years ago and built a network of stargates… devices that transport people across thousands of light-years in an instant."

"Neat trick." Fred whistled, "Makes you wonder why they needed ships though."

Sam blinked, she hadn't really thought about it, "Well, only one gate works per planet so they'd still have to get around, " she hazarded, "And some of the stargates could be in orbit or out near space stations I suppose, for trading?"

"So who built that big old bucket back at Corellia?" Fred wondered

"Another extinct race, the twelve colonies of Kobol." Sam replied, "We found the ship floating in the oort cloud of our solar system. They were all but exterminated by a robotic race called the cylons, and they fled to our galaxy where they met the ancients." Sam paused, "This may be hard to believe but, an alternate version of myself Jack and Teal'c travelled back in time using this jumper on a mission. Somehow they got themselves killed and not only did the mission fail, but the Stargate was buried. Daniel left a video telling the story that was discovered in my time leading to the discovery of the Stargate. Unfortunately the goa'uld discovered us on our first mission and sent ships to enslave earth so we went back in time to set the timeline straight. That's when we found the Pegasus. We thought if we took it forward in time with us we'd be able to give it to our alternates but somehow our ship got caught up in a wormhole that deposited us here."

Fola stared incredulously at her, and then just shook his head.

"You know what I think." Fred suggested, "The doctor and Early are from another galaxy too, from a planetary system colonized by inhabitants of Earth after its natural resources were expended. That wasn't the case when you left was it Sam?"

"No, but we were getting there…" Sam answered.

"So suppose you hadn't found that ship?" Fred suggested, "Suppose there is a quantum universe where Daniel didn't leave the tape for example. Your people never find the Stargate, what then?"

Sam thought about it. "Well eventually they'd develop space flight on their own." She suggested, her eyes lit up "They might eventually have found the Pegasus if we hadn't taken it."

"Or what was left of it." Fred said, "A lot can happen to a ship on its own in 5,000 years. Say this engine, " he waved his hands at _Athena_ is the reverse engineered product off a more advanced model? Earth wouldn't had the resources or material sciences to do it exactly, and they must have been running out of options. "

"There could be a link." Sam admitted.

"Well the captain wanted me to study the principles behind the Pegasus' engines. He is a pretty fair mechanic, and he has said for years this ship could go faster, further than it does. " Fred revealed,

"It can." Said a fresh voice. Starbuck was lounging by the entrance, "I've always been more of a pilot than a mechanic, but I know a tylium reactor when I see one."

"Greetings Lieutenant Starbuck." Declared Cora unexpectedly, "I am pleased to see you." Starbuck started

"You know me?" he asked looking around confused, he advanced towards the console, "Are you a droid?"

"My original program was developed aboard the battlestar_ Galactica_." Cora explained, "you were the pilot chosen to test it out in your Recon Viper. After some minor revisions I was again installed in your viper shortly before we encountered the battlestar_ Pegasus_ under commander Cain. On your final trip over to the Pegasus you took the Viper with me installed and somehow left in a different one."

Starbuck cleared his throat. "oops?"

"After a climactic battle with three Cylon base stars the Pegasus was heavily undermanned and badly damaged. Commander Cain had my program modified again and installed in several of the ships isolated systems to permit nonessential functions to operate more autonomously. When Doctor Carter arrived she and her companions further integrated my program into the systems of _Pegasus_, and a copy was ultimately transmitted to the Jumper for storage."

"I don't remember much from before I came here." Starbuck replied, but… Galactica… his eyes were far off for a moment.

"You appear to remember Athena, as this ship bears her name." Cora observed, "She was the daughter of Commander Adama and an operations officer aboard the Galactica, Some time after the Pegasus arrived in the Solar system, a doctor Cassiopeia mentioned near one of my monitors that you were to be sealed to Athena."

"Athena…" Starbuck whispered, "She pushed me… into the Stargate…." He furrowed his brow and placed a hand to his forehead thinking, "I just can't remember…"

"I do not possess complete records." Cora commented, "But perhaps a Hypercom link to the Pegasus would permit more research?"

"Yes…" Starbuck answered thinking it over, "yes, I'll get right to it:" he looked up, "Well, one thing at a time I suppose, we still have to rescue your friends, " he nodded to Sam, "And fix your ship." He straightened, "This job may come off better than I could have dreamed! Say Cora, " he asked inspiration striking him, "You wouldn't happen to have the specs for the engines on the Pegasus? Or maybe a ship closer in size to this one?"

"I have blueprints for several such ships in my compressed memory bank as well as statistics on performance and design specifications." Cora noted, "I can transmit them to your ships computer, as well as a compressed copy of my data bank."

"I'd appreciate it, but send just the data though." Starbuck answered with a shudder, "I don't think we need an AI poking around, no offense." He added sheepishly.

"You want me to take a look boss? See if there's any improvements we can make?" Fred asked.

"Sure, sure." Starbuck waved a hand dismissively, "But finish what your working on here first ok? We may need this little lady and her cloak for our mission." He patted the Jumper affectionately. "Thanks Cora!"

As he strode away Sam watched him go.

"None of you have a problem with any of this?" She wondered, "You're not the least bit frightened?"

"Hey." Fred said gesturing, "Invisible space ship? If we get it working we'll have nothing to worry about, besides Starbuck gets us into this kind of thing all the time."

"I share your unease Doctor Carter." Fola remarked, "I am used to working in a very safe cubicle. Those I suspect I will need to come along to study the operation of this vehicle for my report." The toydarian drooped glumly. Sam felt oddly comforted however that someone else shared her unease. Part off her observed wryly that she seemed to have more in common with this alien than with her other companions.


	16. Serpents Cry

Chapter 15

"I really hate this galaxy." Groaned Cameron from the floor. "Did you see anything down here we can use?"

"Nope." Answered Daniel, "The chair I'm sitting in, the chair across from me, and the pipes in the ceiling are the only things down here. I don't even see any windows. How's your leg?"

"blessedly numb actually." Replied Cameron, "after Armen blasted a chunk out of it and grilled me for a bit Siris came in all stormy and cleaned and dressed it. I was pretty surprised when she put some kind of numbing patch on it, it was unexpectedly merciful."

"Do you think they're serious about letting us go?" asked Daniel

"With our story? Daniel I told that man the complete truth, I saw no reason not to, and I didn't believe my story. Armen brought me into his living room and explained that this is his house, his family and this is what they do. I am convinced they are all quite literally insane."

"Well I don't buy for a moment that they actually live here." Replied Daniel "A completely empty basement? A catch and release policy? Whoever heard of bounty hunters living in a house, they should have some kind off secret lair or mother ship or something. Its all an effort to intimidate us Cameron which tells me we probably aren't walking out off this alive. They think we know something and if you answered all their questions and it wasn't enough than we have nothing to bargain with. They have shown they are creative and dangerous and deceptively professional."

There was a long quiet moment and finally Daniel asked,

"Do you think they really killed the others?"

"I don't know.' Answered Cameron "The Jack O'Neill I knew was a hard man to kill. Well until they killed him of course."

"Well maybe not so hard to kill he just…"

"wouldn't stay dead…" They both finished together chuckling.

"These guys are psycho." Commented Jarrol as they stood behind the glass observing the two men sitting in the dark. Over the speaker they could hear Daniel and Cameron compare notes over the ways their friends had died. "Armen I don't know, this is a pretty elaborate fiction they got going here."

"I'm not convinced it's a fiction." Replied Armen as Siris limped up behind them. "These men strike me as professionals of one sort or another, they manage their fear well, they manage to gain as much information as they give, and I suspect that if I were to question Daniel tomorrow I would receive a story consistent with Cameron's."

"it's a tough bit to swallow." Commented Jarrol, "We're all in movies on a far off backwater planet."

"So it would seem." Replied Armen. "Its plausible I suppose, That ship of theirs had technology we've never seen before, yet they shot kinetic projectiles at us. These stunners they use are a weapon type I've never seen before. Daniel wears glasses, what kind of backwards society can build an invisible spaceship but hasn't developed eye replacements? No I find myself quite able to believe that while they use advanced technology, these people did not create it, which makes it entirely possible that others of their world wouldn't recognize advanced technology if it hit them in the face."

"Or in the back." Teased Siris patting Jarrol.

"Shut up little sister." Growled the bigger man, "My back is still killing me, and my armor is permanently indented, I'll need to repair that somehow or I'll be leaning backwards next time I put it on."

"This "O'neill" intrigues me." Remarked Jarrol, "The way they describe him he sounds like a legend, was he not the man we spoke to? He sounded like a buffoon."

"They all do." Commented Siris, "Stumbling around blindly with unjustified confidence. Even now they sit there in darkness anticipating certain death, and they swap stories and tell jokes. We defeated two jedi, and kidnapped his friends and that O'Neill character strolls out and makes jokes as though it were nothing. Cameron was just as arrogant, as he was thrashed in the bar, and breaking the toilet? What was that? An insane act of defiance from the moment he woke up, speaks of such will power such determination such…" She trailed off as the other two stared at her,

"Son of a gundark." Commented Jarrol, "Thirty years old, she never shows any interest in men and she's decided she likes that one." He jerked his head towards Mitchell.

"Jubal Early just sat up somewhere and decided to murder a kitten." Guffawed her other brother.

"What?" spluttered Siris, "I do not! I was just agreeing with… Kriff you! I have no trouble getting a man!" She fired a slim fist into Jarrol's stomach causing him to double over and alternate between chuckling and laughing.

"Easy little sister he didn't mean to imply you were unattractive, merely uninterested." Replied Armen, "We've never had to deter any of your suitors from pursuing you too avidly, because when you tired of them you broke their arms, this Cameron fellow seems to have your interest." He turned back to the window, "I wonder if he will survive it."

"Well…" relented Siris mischievously, "He does seem rather durable."

"Looks like, like planet… golf…" Jack floundered as Dantooine came into view.

"It hosts a small population spread amongst single-family settlements and small communities with large land holdings." Teal'c commented from the copilots seat. Jack turned and eyed him speculatively.

"Are you reading from the manual?" he asked arching an eyebrow.

"I have reviewed the planetary database." Teal'c replied loftily, "In order to gain knowledge of the terrain." He paused, "C3FR translated it for me."

"I didn't know that protocol droid spoke Jaffa." Jack replied.

" It appears fluent in over 6 million forms of communication." Teal'c replied darkly.

"Doesn't know when to shut up…." Jack tossed back as Starbuck cleared his throat.

"Jubal are you ready?"

"I am." Replied the confident voice, "What remains to be seen, " replied jubal, "Is whether or not…" Starbuck cut the mic, and after a moment one of the Athena's shuttles flashed by toward the planet.

"He works best on his own." Starbuck told the others with a confident smile. Jack rolled his eyes.

"While he runs reconnaissance lets check on Sam." Jack suggested. Teal'c followed.

Starbuck watched them go, and then after a moment he spoke again.

"Are you here?" He asked

"Yes. Starbuck." Answered Cora's voice, "We have a lot to talk about."

"Well I think we are in agreement that they aren't intentionally misleading us." Stated Armen, "Which leaves a larger problem. If Count Dooku, leader of the seperatists is also the Sith apprentice of Chanceller Palpatine, leader of the Republic, than our employers may be working for a Sith.

"Kriff!" swore Siris, "We should have gotten the story first and then contacted them!"

"It's a standing contract for any information on the whereabouts of the Sith." Replied Armen, "You couldn't have known it would incriminate our employer. "

"Why does the trade federation want information on the Sith if Dooku is a Sith?"

"To permit them to hide in plain sight perhaps." Observed Armen, "We will report this as a dead end and abandon this site. Its time to move on anyhow. The new question is, how can we use this information?"

"We can't approach the Jedi." Pointed out Jarrol, "Not after we tried to kill two of them. We'd be arrested on the spot."

"Well if their story is true we may have to take that risk." Replied jarrol, "A galaxy wide Sith empire is no place to live."

"You know there's something else troubling me." Commented Siris, "That ship they have isn't big enough to carry four people across a galaxy even with a hyperdrive."

"They came in the big one that nearly shot us down." Jarrol guessed.

"That was a trade federation project." Siris scoffed, "Dooku probably sent it as soon as we alerted him to information about a Sith. No their ship is entirely different, it is unlike anything I avhe ever seen in this galaxy, and yet how could it have gotten here?"

"By the force!" breathed Armen catching on, "They spoke of a stargate that could permit instant travel between worlds! A device like that would command a considerable price!"

"Well one of them would be useless actually." Pointed out Siris, "You'd need at least two."

"Their ship is shaped like a circle too." Piped up Jarrol excitedly, "Like it would fit through a ring shaped device." The other two paused for a moment, and then Armen said awkwardly "Well yes Jarrol, that's true."

"Cameron described a facility where they travel through on foot on recon teams." Said Armen, "But he stated that he was displaced in time on a mission, and after being stranded in the past he encountered a version of his team mates created in an alternate timeline travelling in the craft we observed."

"So there may be a stargate on Corellia." Concluded Armen, "I will question Daniel tomorrow regarding the location of the star gate. If he is forthcoming in helping us to locate it, we will let him and Cameron go, take the stargate and be on our way."

"We can't just let them go!" protested Siris, "Their knowledge may still prove useful!"

"The longer we keep them under duress the better the chance that they will attempt an escape." Replied Armen, "You've already had your arm broken and your foot shot, We're not taking them with us when we get out of here." He turned to go and Jarrol looped a consoling arm over her,

"Sorry sis, it looks like your love life is doomed." He said grinning, "But we're gonna be rich!"

Siris nodded noncommittally at Jarrol and gave one last glance at Daniel and Cameron. The two had ceased trading stories and were making efforts to sleep. Daniels efforts appeared successful as he snoozed peacefully, but Cameron turned fitfully on the cold floor.

Sam Fola and Fred worked late into the night but at last jack had insisted they halt their progress and get some rest. Fola and Fred had left with an extensive list of tasks to complete in the morning but it looked promising that between their expertise and with Cora's assistance, the jumper would be operational. Starbuck manned the bridge waiting on jubal's report, and Paul had retreated into his quarters. Roda, restless wandered the ship while his master slept.

He found Teal'c seated cross legged in the back section of the jumper deep in mediation. Not so deep however that he didn't notice Roda's presence. Roda sensed Teal'cs awareness but said nothing, sitting cross legged across from him. He began to immerse himself in the force. He felt its peaceful energies all around him until suddenly, as he reached deeper within himself he sensed a dark malevolence. Startled to find such a presence here he focused in on it. He found an intelligence dominated by powerful instincts. As he made inadvertent contact with the intelligence he felt its surprise and curiosity reaching back. He chose to explore this dark spirit, and attempted to communicate with it. _I am a jedi._ He sent, _you need not fear me._

To his horror the creature did not reciprocate his overture. It suddenly assaulted him with image after image of suffering, of agonies inflicted on others, of savage atrocities. He jerked away butt found his mind captivated by the darkness. _What are you?_ He asked in shock _Why are you doing this?_ Time passed and still Roda could not tear himself free of its grasp, He shook as terror after terror played itself out before him. _Who are you? _He asked again and at last the darkness answered him.

_I am your God._

Roda felt terror within him and with it a flood of paralyzing fear seized him, other images began to flood in, more familiar. An imposing figure in black strode up to him and lifted him by the throat choking the life out of him, he flailed his arms helplessly as he fought for breath staring into the lifeless eyes of a dark helmet….scarred mutilated faces leared at him as they slashed and tore him to pieces with sharp staves that cut and bit… A cackling wizened creature bathed him in lighting screaming in delight at his agony….

_Worthless slave._ Spat the presence, _You will serve me._

Suddenly Roda felt another presence. Deep and boundless, peaceful yet resolute, and with a willpower and a conviction he had never before experienced in anyone save perhaps for Master Yoda himself.

_You are a false God._ Answered a new voice in challenge, _Your power is an illusion._

_ No longer! If only you knew the power, of the dark side. _Replied the malevolent presence. Roda's protector was instantly beset on all sides by a clamoring howling storms. Roda hesitated to disengage from the experience now, for fear that he would trap his protector, but then another presence surrounded them both.

_Breathe easy young padawan, the force is your ally._ Encouraged the voice, _no mere serpent can enslave a Jedi, leave these howling sith to me._

Roda snapped awake not of his own volition. Teal'c had opened his eyes as well.

"What was that?" gasped Roda wiping his face. He was bathed in sweat and wet trails down his face indicated he had been crying. Ashamed he dried his eyes. "What WAS that?" he demanded.

"I believe you spoke to the Prim ta within me." Stated Teal'c softly, his voice rumbled like the sound of distant thunder. "A larval form of the goa'uld symbiote."

"It is a creature of pure evil." Said Roda aghast, "Why would you carry such a creature?"

"it is my curse." Answered Teal'c darkly. My people were long ago enslaved by goa'uld purporting to be Gods. They altered my people so that we must carry their young or fall ill and die a most excruciating death. When they reach maturity they will leave us to die in search off a new host. Whoever they possess will gain strength and longevity, but will be forever subjugated to the symbiote's will. I will kill it before that happens, but for now I have no choice but to carry it within."

"In a way it is now your slave." Roda said to reassure Teal'c, "perhaps a technology can be found to rid you of it, and you can be free of it once and for all."

"That is my hope." Replied Teal'c Solemnly. "Every night I must Kel Noreem to permit the gao'uld within to regenerate my body. At that time, the prim'ta reaches out for what you call the dark side. It is however, not yet mature, and can do nothing to me I do not permit."

"I rushed right in like a fool." Said Roda, "It seized hold of me with dark images, and through it I became open to the dark side."

"Indeed." Commented Teal'c, "You must be careful Roda, you seem very susceptible to the influence of this dark side."

"Our burdens are similar." Observed Roda, "The same affinity that connects me to the living force can permit it to consume me, enslave me. I have been warned through all of my training that the dark side seeks purchase in our emotions. Our doubts, our fears, it feeds on that darkness and seeks to twist us to its own ends, yet I felt another presence as well, there at the end. The dark could do it now harm, it was amazing."

"You speak of Quai Gon Jin." Replied Teal'c, "I believe him to be a jedi who has somehow found ascension. He has spoken to me during my meditation."

"Has he?" asked Roda amazed, "You are not a Jedi Teal'c, yet you commune with the force, how can this be?"

"it was Master Quai Gon who reached out to me." Replied to Teal'c, "He has told me of a great struggle to come."

"The galactic war Daniel and Cameron spoke of." Surmised Roda, "My master will inform the council when next she reports."

"Should she not have informed them immediately?" asked Teal'c with some surprise.

"With the fighting on Coruscant we cannot get through." Roda replied, "And she couldn't reveal what we think we know over an open channel. "

"We must rescue Daniel Jackson and Cameron." Teal'c replied, "Then may we accompany you to do battle with these Sith."

"We must rescue Daniel Jackson and Cameron, because it is the right thing to do." Roda clarified, "This is what my master struggles with. The darkness looms Teal'c, yet we are powerless tos stop it.

"What the…" Cameron's exclamation was muffled by a strong, but surprisingly soft hand.

"Shhhh." Whispered a soothing voice, "Don't wake your friend. I'm here to check on your leg."

By the light of a dim lantern, Cameron could make out Siris' feminine shape. He acknowledged to himself that when she was somewhat attractive when she wasn't either trying to kill him, or wearing body armor. He did a double take. Siris was wearing a nightgown. She was carefully unwrapping his bandage and Cameron hissed slightly. The leg was healing surprisingly fast, she had put something called a bacta patch on it, but it still stung horribly and the itch was infuriating. The pain relief she had applied earlier had long since faded. Cameron suddenly realized he couldn't feel the cold damp cement any more, Someone had brought a padded blanket and pulled him onto it. He shot a surprised look at Siris who looked up innocently.

"What the hell are you doing?" Whispered Cameron tensely, "Lady first your trying to kill me, now you're my nurse? What is going on?"

Having finished rewrapping his leg, and replacing it with blessed numbness, Siris snapped the medkit shut and leaned back with a cross expression

"This isn't all my fault you know." She answered sadly, "You could have just come with me in the bar."

"WHA.." began Cameron jerking upwards, and caught himself. He whispered once more, "What? You tried to kidnap me! You had a gun!"

"Set to stun." Clarified Siris, "You started the entire bar fight, your friend broke my arm."

"You tried to kill us!" hissed Cameron amazed at the direction things were turning. "Your brothers tried to kill my friends, may have succeeded!"

There was silence as she looked at him impassively. She shook her head.

"We're releasing you tomorrow."

"Whats…" Cameron was getting excited he forced his voice to a whisper, "Whats wrong with tonight? Its still early?"

Siris started to chuckle and then stopped. She was silent for so long Cameron thought she ahd gone.

"I'm sorry about your friends." She said finally.

"Are you crying?" demanded Cameron dumbfounded, "There's no crying in star wars!" he floundered. Siris snapped the lamp off.

"Siris?" whispered Cameron, "Siris?"

After several minutes he slumped down to the pad. "First the space chick tries to kill me, than she tells me she likes me, then I make her cry. Lord almighty are you seeing this? I am in way over my head."

A sudden movement startled Cameron and before he could move a warm mouth pressed over his and a tongue drove between his lips kissing him passionately. Siris pressed her impossibly warm body against his and for several long exciting moments Cameron could only respond and thank whoever was looking down on him. Then the kiss ended abruptly, and she was gone. This time Cameron head the stairs creak once and the door close softly.

For a long moment he lay there in the darkness trying to make sense of what was happening.

"You know you're absolutely ridiculous." Came Daniel's voice from the darkness.


	17. Hide and Seek

Chapter 16

Armen switched off the view screen, and deleted the last several minutes of footage and leaned back. Raala placed an arm on his shoulders.

"if Jarrol sees that mat down there, she'll never live it down." Observed his wife.

"Well this situation is pretty messed up." Replied Armen, "I think a peace offering might be in order if we want to get their help. I think at this point its pretty clear to them that we aren't going to kill them."

"You know I hacked the Corellian orbital tracking logs." Answered Raala, "There's a large unidentified ship being refitted in the drive yards, it arrived slightly before they did."

"Blast." Swore Armen, "A stargate is more valuable than a ship."

"Jarrol will be so disappointed." Commented Raala, "On the other hand if we deliver them to the Jedi on Coruscant and expose the Chancellor we may be heros."

"Or we will be arrested." Armen commented drolly, "In the meantime I'll have to cconvince our employers that this Stargate is more valuable than intel on the Sith."

Raala patted him on the back reassuringly, and Armen rubbed his temples, "I really need to get some sleep, I have a feeling tomorrow is going to drain the life out of me."

"AH coffee!" beamed O'Neill, "It's a shot of life!" Carter glowered at him. What? I'm a morning person.

"Since when?" demanded Sam

"Since I spent my first night in a bed with a lovely woman instead of I don't know, a tent in the desert full of smelly men, a spaceship with two guys and Teal'c…"

"Technically, we _are_ on a spaceship." Sam observed.

"Whats wrong with Teal'c?" asked Roda.

"it's just… have you noticed the smell?" asked Jack, "its just creepy."

"I think he smells nice." Said Carter, "sort of Earthy, with a hint of lilac?"

"Exactly." Agreed Jack, "A guy that size should smell like… Right guard or Tinactin, or something…." He trailed off shrugging.

Chariss sat down and began spooning sweetener into her caf. As Jack finished and rose to leave, Sam followed him, the two chatting idly.

"Those two are quite devoted to each other." Remarked Chariss. "Samantha has a keen mind, and quite a sense of humor, and in his own way so does the Colonel. Unfortunate that the rest of us are not in on the joke."

"Yes master." Commented Roda dutifully, "Have you tried this 'coffee' they prefer?"

"Caf will do just fine for me." Answered Chariss reproachfully, "You are quite impressionable my young Padawan."

The difference in the demeanors of the humans from Earth and his solemn Master was a bit disheartening to Roda but he refused to be dismayed. He had the sneaking suspicion his master felt competition for his attentions recently. Recently assigned to her care Roda had spent the last several months chafing under her strict training and under-stimulating reproach. Frankly he was bored and the earthers were a spark of excitement. Roda could hear in his mind the voice of Yoda chiding him as a youngling. "Adventure, Hmph, Excitement, hmph. A Jedi craves not these things."

"Master have you felt a change in our new friends?" asked Roda carefully, "In the way they feel in the force?" His master paused and considered. Placing her spoon upon the table she closed her eyes and expanded her senses. She opened her eyes in some surprise.

"Well done my young padawan." She said genuinely pleased with him for perhaps the first time he had known her. He basked in the praise that lasted all too brief.

"O'Neill is by far the strongest." He commented, "When we first met him he had only the faintest presence in the force, yet know he glows like a beacon, second only to Yoda, or perhaps Anakin."

"Yoda is very attuned to the force." Replied Chariss, "It flows cleanly through him and seems brighter for it. Anakin is raw power on the other hand, O'Neill is more like him. Unfocused, and undisciplined, I doubt O'Neill is even aware of it. Samantha has some small potential but her very nature would be a barrier to the force. Daniel was much the same way, though of all of them I suspect he is the most mindful, the most likely to feel the force through his senses."

"Have you spoken much to Teal'c?" Asked Roda. This had been where he hoped the discussion would lead, "He has a very different kind of presence, easy to miss at first, he is like a still pond, such ponds can be tremendously deep."

"I see you have thought much on this." Replied Chariss fixing him with a piercing gaze. "I sensed great distress in you last night, I thought to locate you, but it passed abruptly."

. Roda relayd the events o the previous night, taking care to carefully describe the experience, and to accurately report every word that Teal'c had used. In the end his master was very still, pondering.

"I knew Qui Gon well." She said at last. "His passing was such a loss to our order but he came by it because of his own impulsiveness. I read the report myself and it seems Qui Gon raced to defeat a Sith lord by himself when his padawan Obi Wan was prevented from helping by a shield barrier."

"If ever we were to face a Sith master, I hope you would permit me to aid you if I can." Said Roda.

"Well obi Wan was a more experienced Jedi, and older at the time." Replied Roda, "I don't think you or I will truly encounter a Sith lord."

"The strangers say Count Dooku and Chancellor Palpatine are Sith." Protested Roda, "Surely…"

"Their claims will be investigated thoroughly by the jedi council." Chariss cut him off, "It is not our place to speculate, and any action necessary will be taken by the council itself. Our job is simply to find Daniel and Cameron and bring them to the council to make a full report."

"You don't believe them Master?" asked Roda aghast, "but yesterday you…"

"It a complicated situation." Stated his master, "It is best not to rush to make a judgement. Samantha, Jack and Teal'c have admitted they have no knowledge of this "Star Wars" fiction, yet O'Neill and Carter claim to have followed Starbuck's exploits through a TV series called "The adventures of Starbuck?" I am not sure we can even trust Daniel Jackson. He does not understand our ways, he does not see the value in order and obedience. Much of what he professes could be supportive of sith teachings."

Roda did not know what to say, his master's abrupt shift in demeanor puzzled him. The situation was certainly complex but her moods had been most mercurial of late. As she stood and left him he began to consider the possibility that his master was losing her mind.

"Well well well, I hope everyone slept well last night, I myself, slept like a log." Armen announced as Jarrol stood Cameron up beside Daniel. Cameron leaned over to Daniel.

"More like lies like a rug,"

"Daniel come with me." Ordered Armen, "Jarrol, keep an eye on Cameron."

Daniel trudged wearily up the stairs and was seated on the couch in the living room. Jarrol poured some tea into a cup and set it before Daniel. Daniel noted through narrowed eyes he hadn't actually been asked if he wanted any.

"Cozy." He commented as his binders were removed, "I like the décor, no family pictures, no knickknacks… bloodstain on the floor where you shot my friend's leg off…"

"I told them we wouldn't fool you." Answered Armen, "What do you think you know?"

"I know you're not as crazy as you want us to think you are." Hedged Daniel. "I know this isn't a house, and I SUSPECT you have realized that we aren't lying to you."

"I knew you were good." Answered Armen, "This is no longer an interrogation Daniel, it's a negotiation."

"What possible motivation do I have to negotiate with you." Asked Daniel, "After all you've put me through, all you've put my friends through."

"Your friends are alive." Replied Armen, "What happened was a misunderstanding. We were contracted to capture a Sith Daniel, a Sith. Your friend O'Neill there took my sister out pretty handily and she's no slouch in hand to hand. To get you we had to go through two jedi, neither of which would have hesitated to sever an arm or a leg to subdue us, or did you think those light sabers were for show."

"Alright alright I see why you came in guns blazing." Answered Daniel, "That doesn't mean I should trust you, it just means when you are wrong people get hurt and you don't seem to care that you're the one doing the hurting."

Armen stood up and paced.

"I was wrong Daniel, I admit it." He replied at last, "If you are looking for more than that you're not going to get it. I don't regret the steps I took, only that it was all for nothing. My family has been at war with the Sith for generations, I grew up hearing how dangerous they are and I was this close," he pinched to fingers together, "To catching Darth maul. My little sister doesn't understand all that, neither does jarrol, but there is more to this than a payoff. The sith are deadly Daniel, a toxin to society, they need to be removed as quickly as possible before their toxin spreads,"

"I'm sorry but what does any o this have to do with me?" Demanded Daniel, "Count Dooku's a sith, run along now, we'll see ourselves out."

"I was telling you why I came gunning for a Sith." Armen shot back harshly, "But I'm afraid things have become a little bit more complicated than that." He sank down into the easy chair across from Daniel. "Siris has a thing for your buddy."

"I'm aware," answered Daniel dryly.

"Siris has never been prone to infatuation." Explained Armen, "I've never seen her bat an eye at any man, occasionally she would humor them but you could tell, I could tell anyway, she wasn't really interested. Suddenly she's all buddy buddy with your friend Cameron, I've never seen her like this."

"So what?" demanded Daniel, he shook his head, "I'm sorry is this still a negotiation? I'm concerned about what we are negotiating for here."

"Fine." Snapped Armen, "How did you get to Corellia. Your jumper doesn't have hyper drive does it Daniel." Daniel was startled into silence and when he said nothing Armen continued, "You have a ship or a star gate Daniel, that's what we are negotiating."

"What happened to 'catch and release'?" demanded Daniel.

"I think we both know I can't do that to my sister." Armen replied, "I still have a way to make this work, I can't let my family down."

"Okay I'm starting to get a serious headache here." Said Daniel putting a hand to his temple, "Maybe you aren't getting this. You refer to this as negotiation, a negotiation typically benefits both parties, so I ask you as clearly as I can put it; what is in it for me, what's in I for my friends, what do we get?"

Early had heard enough. He thumbed off the audio enhancing device in his hand and put down his macro binoculars. He moved stealthily through the woods to where a speeder bike was parked, the paused. Something shimmered in the woods before him, a hovercar travelling down the nearby road. He hefted his binoculars and returned to his position. As he watched the hovercar park he spied two very familiar figures exiting the vehicle.

"This just got very interesting indeed…" Jubal remarked. Siris and Raala stepped out off the hosue to meet the two figures. Early thumbed his com link."

"You there captain?" he asked

"Jubal what are you doing? You're broadcasting in the clear!" Starbuck hissed over the com.

"All the people who could be listening are busy talking." Early replied in his usual way, "And I thought there were things that you should know."

"Like what?" Starbuck asked, "You were supposed to be back before morning jubal what the hell have you been doing all night?"

"Basking in the divine revelation of my discontent." Replied Early, "Siris has a thing for Cameron."

"What?" Starbuck's voice was nonplussed, "That's why she kidnapped him?"

"Talk about a shotgun wedding." Jack's voice came over the line."

"I don't think love was her intention." Early hedged, " I think the plan was to capture Cameron and Daniel, but Cameron seems to have captured her." He paused for a moment, "I wonder if she intends to escape."

"Stay with us Jubal." Starbuck replied, "How are Daniel and Cameron being treated? Are they in danger?"

"Cameron's been kissed and tortured." Early said, "Daniel is being served tea and interrogated."

"What the hell is this garbage?" Jack demanded of Starbuck, "I thought you said these people were your crew."

"They _were_ my crew for a time." Starbuck answered, "one of my first jobs was to transport Chariss and her master to Nar Shadda to capture a Sith Acolyte. Chariss was captured and her master killed in battle. Jubal and I tracked them to their base, but needed some backup. We hired Armen and his siblings for the job and they stayed on after. Armen had a thing for my chief Mechanic Raala."

"Did you happen to notice they were a bit…" jack made a circular gesture near beside his forehead.

"Well actually they fit right in." Starbuck muttered. "it takes a special kind off personality to put up with Jubal and Todd can be downright unnerving at times. We had run ins a few times I'll admit, because they were violent, but they played by my rules while they were on my ship."

"They aren't on your ship you know." O'neill pointed out pacing to the front of the cockpit.

"I know." Starbuck said darkly, "That's why I sent Jubal instead of knocking on the front door."

"On that point." Came Jubal's voice, "This is turning out to be a bit off a reunion, Captain, Some of our other friends are here."

"So as a sign of good faith you will bring us back to our friends." Repeated Daniel, "Than after you surrender your weapons, we will take you with us on our ship, you acquire a cloning cylinder through your contacts and accompany us back to our own galaxy. We offer to open up negotiations between you and the asgard to trade the cloning cylinder for a ship with intergalactic hyper drive, and then you are free to procure star gates from uninhabited worlds to bring back to this galaxy."

"Alright this is a workable plan." Said Armen at last, "perhaps it is time to introduce you to my employers." He called for Jarrol to bring Cameron. There came a knock at the door.

"Jackson, how come you get the tea and I get the torture?" Cameron demanded limping up the stairs. His leg was looking much better. A sour looking Jarrol followed him.

"just lucky I gue…" Daniel halted mid sentence as first as two new figures entered the room.

"Daniel, Cameron, I would like to introduce you to my employers, Todd, and Ba'al."

"…as in _whiffle_?" Jack demanded incredulously, Teal'c had joined them.

"This concerns me greatly O'Neill…" Teal'c stated, "Ba'al was a formidable system lord."

"You heard of these wraith?" O'Neill asked, "Is there a civilization out there that worships the false God Todd?"

"Todd is from another galaxy." Starbuck explained, "of the three of us, he was the only one with memories prior to the crash. He called the city "Atlantis" and told me his people had been all but wiped out by its former inhabitants when they conquered his galaxy. Those people came from this galaxy, 25 or so years from now."

"Atlantis?" Jack choked a little, he sat down at the copilot's console. "Seriously? You know I still don't think I like this "Todd" character, "the wraith" isn't exactly a friendly name for a species…."

"If Ba'al is lying, about his memory, Daniel Jackson and Cameron Mitchell could be in grave danger." Teal'c pressed.

"So we'll go down there." Starbuck declared, "Right now, in the open while they're all together. We'll explain we already have a deal with CEC and Ba'al and Todd can certainly get in on it since their guys captured yours."

Suddenly Jack's console started beeping wildly, as did Starbuck's.

"Wasn't me!" Jack protested putting his hands up and sliding out of the seat.

"Something's wrong!" Roda called from the hallway bursting into the cockpit, "Something's…"

Through the viewport before them Ships began erupting from hyperspace, dozens began to fill the sky around them.

"Aw for cryin out loud.." Jack muttered.

"So… you have no memory?" Daniel asked glancing at Cameron.

"None." Ba'al replied, "There was another with us, and we made a living for some time on his ship until we amassed sufficient wealth to begin expanding our interests."

"My friend has a keen mind for business." Todd declared.

"Thank you Todd, you are too kind." Ba'al chuckled. "Though that fortuitious investment in Blastech Corporation was your doing, our share increased a hundred fold with that contract to arm the grand army of the republic. We are patriots, and you my friend are a genius."

"Not at all." Replied the Wraith graciously inclining his head. They looked at Cameron and Daniel. Daniel and Cameron glanced at each other and beamed back.

"Can we have a minute?" Daniel asked, "We just need to chat."

"We've got to get out of here." Chariss ordered sweeping into the already crowded cockpit. Roda hastened to make room, seating himself at the copilot's console, Jack and Teal'c stepped towards her from where they stood by the window.

"What are you talking about? We're not giving up now." O'Neill sputtered, "They're right there, the Jumper's ready, we cloak… we pick them up…"

"There is no time for that." Chariss insisted, "You cannot be captured by the seperatists Colonel you are too important."

"Why thank you." Jack said taken aback, "I had no idea you cared." He glanced at Teal'c "Seriously, I thought she hated me."

"The information you have." Chariss insisted, "Captain I order you to take this ship into hyperspace at once."

"Not gonna happen Lady." Starbuck replied, "Jubal's shuttle is still out there for starters and Jack's right, we can end this, here and now. If Armen goes to ground we may never find him again, if he gets caught by the separatists with Daniel and Cameron, well that's not exactly good either."

"Captain, exactly who do you think hired you?" Chariss demanded, "The Jedi are the guardians of order in this galaxy and this man contains information that threatens the very Republic itself, if jubal is on his way we can wait for him but most certainly cannot loiter while a trade federation battle fleet surrounds us."

"Frak!" Starbuck swore, "We're already caught in a tractor beam, their pulling us in!"

"That is a wraith!" Cameron hissed

"That is a system lord!" Daniel hissed back, then paused, "Wait a wraith? Like from Atlantis?"

"Exactly like from Atlantis, I read the mission reports." Cameron said, "Todd was The Wraith of wraiths, he must be up to something."

"Neither one of them seems to recognize us." Daniel said, "Sometimes I forget we're in the past…"

"Jackson!" Cameron hissed, "If we are in THEIR past, they'd have remembered us in OUR past."

"Whsoe to say they don't?" Daniel asked, "I've never met a wraith have you?"

"What about Ba'al?" Cameron asked, "This seems like the kind of thing he'd have mentioned."

"I'm not sure…" Daniel said, "But Todd mentioned a 'lucky investment'…"

"Everything ok?" Siris was at the door.

"Sure, everything's great." Cameron grumbled, "Biff Tanner escaped with the sports Almanac, and our Delorean is a galaxy away."

"Good reference." Daniel commented.

"I thought so." Cameron said smugly.

Siris stared at them for a minute.

"I know most of the words you just said, but they make no sense when you put them together." She said uncertainly, "Are you sure you two are ok?"

Jackson looked at Cameron.

"Everything's fine with you?" he asked

"Oh sure, everything's great everything's… fine…" Cameron fumbled

"We're fine." Said Daniel, "Everything's fine… "

Raala burst into the room.

"Armen, the trade federation is here." She said urgently, "They are landing battle droids between us and the spaceport!"

"What?" Demanded Armen, "What happened?"

"They attacked Coruscant." Raala replied, "They lost."

"Woah hey woah, personal space!" Fred grumbled as he and Foda were suddenly jostled by O'Neill and Teal'c entering the jumper. Sam turned from the front.

"Jack? Whats going on?" She asked

"Is this thing fixed?" Jack demanded, then paused, "Who the hell are you?" he asked Fred.

"Fred." Replied the man, "And you are?"

"Jack." O'Neill replied turning.

"How… ordinary.." Fred muttered.

"What?" Jack demanded nonplussed.

"Well Samantha, and Teal'c and their friends Daniel and Cameron, they all sound so exotic but you're just… Jack…Jack… Jack.." Fred practice the name.

O'Neill gave him an incredulous look and then shook his head.

"Sam does the cloak work?" he asked

"I think so…" she said doubtfully, "Why?"

"We're about to be boarded, we have to hide."

"They must not find O'Neill." Chariss warned.

As Jack sat down the door began to close and the view before them shimmered.

"Not a second too soon, look!" Roda exclaimed. Through the viewport they could seethe hatch to the cargo bay open. Starbuck held his hands up as a quartet of battledroids came inside. Two Droiddekas followed.

"Gentleman, welcome to the Athena," he greeted with a cigarillo between his teeth. He held up a hand for a moment and pulled a book of matches from his pocket. He selcted one and then struck it on the chest off a surprised battledroid. "Thanks." He told it, "What can I do for you?"

Inside the jumper Jack muttered "This happens _entirely_ too often."


	18. The Men With Nine Lives

Chapter 17

"You did what?" demanded Jack

"I sent a data burst to the Jedi council informing them of a possible trade federation presence." Answered Chariss holding up a small device. Jack snatched it from her and handed it to Carter/, "With their resources we can more quickly locate your friends and put an end to this."

Carter examined the device, "It looks like it just sends text messages," She said looking at Chariss for confirmation.

"Difficult to trace such a small burst to a precise location, " Fola commented looking over her shoulder, "This model appears to employ significant encryption." Sam nodded gratefully to him.

"Next time you get the urge to send up a signal flare would you mind checking with the adults?" Jack asked, "We're trying to keep a low profile remember?"

"It was a harmless, virtually untraceable…"

"The Jumper knew you did it." Jack pointed to the red warning on the screen, "Couldn't be that harmless…"

"Actually I find that somewhat perplexing." Fola interjected, "The detection methods employed by the jumper do not appear to include internal monitoring of transmissions."

Jack stared at him,

"But perhaps that is a mystery for another time." Fola concluded smoothly. He fluttered back to the aft cabin and began puttering over some equipment.

"We are perfectly safe here in the cargo hold while cloaked." Chariss replied equitably."

"Yeah? What if Starbuck and Paul get hassled by those robots?" O'Neill demanded

Starbuck eyed the floating black sphere before him warily.

"We detected a transmission from this ship." Repeated the battle droid before him, "You and your doctor were under observation at this time. Please explain "

"I don't know" Starbuck shrugged, "There's so many gadgets kicking around, maybe it was something automatic?"

"It was a highly encrypted "something automatic." The robot replied dubiously, "We can confirm your story through use the of the interrogation droid."

Starbuck blanched and Paul attempted to intercede.

"Please sir, my captain has a serious medical condition I have been treating for years, interrogation would most certainly be useless, he would die before you were able to confirm that we know nothing." The Doctor moved forward imploringly, "Such an act would be... a waste."

"What is his medical condition?" Demanded the battledroid.

"I'm allergic to torture." Starbuck answered without missing a beat. Paul sighed.

To their surprise the droid considered, "That does make sense, do you have any other allergies we should be aware of?"

"Death, pain, bad fumarillos and cylons." Starbuck smiled winningly.

'Several of those words do not compute." Replied the robot, "We will conduct a physical scan of your ship to determine where the transmission came from. Follow me to your cargo hold."

"Frak.." Starbuck muttered following, Paul brought up the rear stating, "Frak indeed."

"Something's happening." Fred warned as he spotted the battledroid leading Paul and Starbuck back into the cargo bay. They were followed by two others.

"Fred, we know." Jack pointed out, "We're all looking at what you're looking at." He gestured, "Its just the one window."

"Right, and someone would have had to acknowledge that something was happening." Fred replied, "someone had to say what we were all thinking, I'm that someone jack, and you're welcome."

Jack rubbed his temples.

The jumper's audio pickup caught the battledroid speaking into its comm..

"Send a dozen battledroids in, we are going to physically search the ship for the source of the transmission."

"that's really not necessary." Said Starbuck, "Did I mention I'm allergic to trespassers?"

"We are not trespassers, we are inspectors." Replied the battledroid.

"Wonderful, I think he's developing a sense of humor." Starbuck said to paul as an aside.

"We can't stay here." Sam said to Jack, "If they search the ship, sooner or later they'll walk right into the Jumper.

"I'm on it." jack said.

"What is that noise?" the droid asked Starbuck."

"Hmm? Oh just me... I hum when I'm nervous." Starbuck replied, "Hmmmmm..." He tried to match the tone of the jumper's engines powering up.

"Perhaps it would aid your inspection if we were to open the main door?" Paul suggested.

"The cargo bay is not pressurized." Warned the battledroid.

"We have a shield." Paul answered, "We deployed a shipment of satellites on a job once."

"Very well." The Battledroid replied, It clicked its comm., "Stand by, we are opening the main hatch."

"Roger Roger." Replied the other side.

"Roger, Roger; Roger, Roger." Replied the droid.

Starbuck rolled his eyes and the main door opened with a creak of hydraulics.

"Give the shield a moment to stabilize." Advised Paul holding up a hand. The atmospheric shield gave a mighty flicker. A space opened up in it and then close.

"Does it do that a lot?" asked the battledroid.

"Oh yeah it's a bit quirky." Starbuck replied, "The whole ship is, we rebuilt her from the ground up when we bought she's quite a piece of work." He slapped the bulkhead.

"You are no longer humming." The droid observed.

"Well I'm not nervous anymore." Starbuck replied, "The sooner you check out my ship the sooner you leave right? And let Jubal dock?"

"Affirmative." Replied the droid.

"I see no cause for alarm." Ba'al repeated, "The Seperatists couldn't possibly be interested in this system, there is nothing of value here. Perhaps they just wish to regroup and be on their way."

"Droids don't need to "regroup"." Armen said, "They took a beating at Coruscant, but their machines, they would return to a nearby base unless their ships were damaged and unable to make the journey. Dantooine is in completely the wrong direction."

"perhaps these forces are commanded by a defector." Suggested Todd.

"You mean you don't know?" Daniel asked, I thought you guys had business dealings with them."

"Our primary investment is in the weapons that kill those mechanical contraptions." Ba'al drew himself up proudly, "We strongly support the empire."

Daniel coughed discretely.

"The what?" Armen said pointedly.

Ba'al cleared his throat, Forgive me I am not feeling well, perhaps my companion can explain." He motioned Todd who gave him an exasperated look.

"Don't bother, I think we get the idea." Cameron said, "You already know the outcome of this little war and you decided to back the big guy, tell me does it matter that he's a master of evil and all o that?"

"My kind were considered evil merely because we once fed on humans to survive." Todd replied evenly, " he gazed at Cameron evenly.

"Run that by me again?" Jarrol demanded pulling his blaster.

"What Todd means is that his people were once the scourge of the Pegasus galaxy, what you didn't know you're little ship mate was Vlad Dracule himself?" Cameron crowed and the suddenly he stopped. "Oh look what I just did." Daniel nodded.

"Yup." He said.

"So it appears you have some knowledge of both this galaxy and my own." Todd observed, "I suspected from your knowledge of stargates you might, who are you exactly."

"That's not really important." Daniel replied taking over, "Really it isn't because our reality doesn't exist anymore, and neither does yours. The reality in which we find ourselves however is about to be taken over by an evil despot. Now I realize that when you two thought you were the only ones who knew you felt powerless. You aren't. We have enough of the full picture here that we can go before the Jedi council and stop palpatine from taking over."

"I would have thought you boys would be all over this." Cameron observed, "Much easier get a piece of the pie if other people are already doing the slicing right? If Palpatine takes over, he gets the whole thing for himself."

Armen thumped his blaster loudly against a wall.

"If you four don't start making sense I'm going to shoot someone. Siris get the first aid kit we'll make it look like an accident."

"In just a few days time, Chancellor Palpatine fakes an attempt on his life and declares himself emperor." Daniel explained, "Todd somehow knows this, he knew the Clone wars were about to happen when he convinced ball to buy stock in the company that supplied the republic forces with weapons."

"I had a few models pointed in my general direction by some people yes." Todd admitted, "They ended up being a faction that rebelled against Palpatine's empire, but ultimately failed."

Daniel cocked his head.

"They failed?" Cameron asked, "Death Star didn't go boom? No Ewoks dancing in the forest?"

"They failed." Todd said, "A Goa'uld expeditionary force detonated a weapon at centerpoint killing the emperor and destroying the death star. Subsequent attacks by the Cylons and the Yuuzhon Vong fractured the galaxy further until Grand Admiral Thrawn stepped in and within a few years a stronger more powerful empire emerged under his leadership. "

"Well that's different." Daniel said glancing at Cameron.

"What kind of crackpot story is that?" Cameron demanded, "Cylons? The big sword wielding robots from battlestar Galactica, _which_ by the way was a star wars rip off." He glanced at Daniel

Daniel nodded, "Oh yes, it certainly was…"

"You expect us to believe the Cylons the Goa'uld and the rebellion all failed to take down the empire?" Cameron demanded.

"The new Republic obtained the coordinates to Atlantis and began setting the city up as a fall back base of operations." Todd replied. "believe me Colonel, I've been around enough to know a losing side, they were on the run."

"Whooped your people pretty good." Cameron observed.

"Their technology is advanced beyond our own." Todd replied, "Yet unlike the ancients, these rebels had a fighting spirit. They were led as well by a man named John Sheppard, a master tactician, he knew our every move."

Cameron glanced at Daniel.

"If Palpatine wasn't running the show, who was?" he asked

"I believe his name was Thrawn." Todd replied, "My dealings were primarily with a man named Calrissian, and I am not… particularly fond of thinking about him."

"Ok…" Daniel said, "Well if that's all, I say we go ahead with the "Warn the Jedi save the galaxy rule, fix our ship, contact the Asgard and get on home."

"We still have the small matter of getting off this planet." Ba'al replied, "Our craft is at the spaceport, as is Armen's and I don't believe the separatists intend to let us leave here just yet."

"That may not be a problem." Raala said from by the window. "A spaceship just appeared outt of nowhere on our lawn, and… it had weapons on it now."

"Any HINT of danger Teal'c you blow them to kingdom come." O'Neill ordered.

"What could they possibly do to a shielded armed space ship?" asked Chariss.

Jack cranked his head round at her.

"And you were a general?" he demanded, "Fred! You guys have shoulder mounted weaponry in this galaxy? Anti fighter weapons?"

"Does a gundark like it's mother?" Fred replied from the back, "We sure do."

"er Thanks… I think." Jack replied glancing askance at Sam, who occupied the station behind Teal'c. She shrugged.

"Colonel O'Neill." Teal'c warned, "look." Outside the door opened and Daniel and Cameron stepped out. Daniel waved.

"Hi Guys!" they heard over the speakers, "Can we come in?"

"That depends Daniel, where are your friends?" jack asked.

Daniel Motioned that he could not hear Jack. Jack rolled his eyes and clicked a button.

With a squawk jack's voice projected from the jumper.

"Testing… one two three testing…"

"Ok we can hear you." Daniel confirmed, "Everything's fine, it was all a misunderstanding. They beat up Cameron , but it was because he has a secret admirer."

There was silence.

"The big guy?" Jack asked.

"Can we just move on…" Cameron implored, glancing red faced back through a window. An equally red faced Siris would not meet his gaze and Armen was laughing so loud tears sprang from his eyes holding Raala for support. Jarrol pointed at Cameron and made a throat cutting gesture. "Our kidnappers made a deal, but their ship is at the spaceport, we need to get to Coruscant."

"Look our ride is kind of impounded." Jack stated over the speaker, "We already have like.." he turned back counting "Three, Four, Five.. six…" he paused as his finger pointed at Fola, "Well five and a half passengers. "

"Well that's… it's gonna be a little cramped." Daniel said flustered.

"Carter says it'll take centuries anyway." Jack said, "No hyper drive remember?"

"Well… we need to get to Coruscant." Daniel said. "And soon, by my reckoning palpatine makes his move any day now."

"We might be able to get back to the Athena," Jack said, "its in the cargo bay of one of those big… donut ships."

Armen opened the door. And cautiously peeked out.

"That would probably be easier than trying to escape a spaceport." He contributed, "The Athena you said?"

"yeah." Said Jack, "Heard you were old friends."

"Starbuck will get us to Coruscant." Jarrol said to the others, "Then we cut the deal,"

"Actually, Ba'al and I would prefer not to accompany you for that leg of our journey." Todd said, "It seems unnecessarily… hazardous."

"Fair enough." Armen said, he turned to Daniel. "If you can persuade you're friend… O'Neill" to bring us with you, we can no doubt be of assistance in liberating Athena."

"Keeping an eye on your investment?" Cameron asked.

"Somewhat." Acknowledged Armen, "But in truth my family has a deep hatred off Sith, if we can stop one from conquering the galaxy, well, we'll do what we can."

"Fine." Cameron replied, "Then lets tell Jack what we're doing." He paused thinking for a moment then prodded Daniel forward as Siris and Jarrol followed Armen out with their hands up. "Daniel, tell Jack, what we're doing."

Jack looked expectantly at Daniel. Daniel sighed.


	19. Take The Athena

Chapter 18

The jumper hurtled through the thinning atmosphere, erupting at last into the darkness of space. Before Jack, the HUD on the jumper's forward window isolated a number of larger ships and a window popped up with a summary.

"That's a lot of company." He commented, "More came in while we were down there."

"It looks like they're staging for something." Daniel said from behind Jack. Armen Siris Jarrol and Raala sat in the back compartment with the two Jedi, Fred and Fola, Teal'c occupied the third seat in the front, while Sam and Jack the first two. Cameron leaned against the door frame and Dr Jackson was squeezed between jack and the astromech Fola had recently installed.

"Palpatine had control of both the Repiblic and the CIS." Cameron noted, "He could have ordered the CIS to fall back after the battle of Coruscant. Right about now he's trying to turn Anakin to the dark side, he doesn't need any distractions."

"Republic intelligence probably doesn't have a complete inventory of CIS ships." Armen volunteered from the back, "Assets fully staffed by droids can just sit and wait for eyars in backwater systems, just waiting for orders."

"Jack can you do a scan for life signs?" Samantha asked, "I think I have an idea. She flipped open her laptop and interfaced the jumper's databank.

A wireframe of the tradeship before them came up replacing the scrolling list of sensor contacts., two red dots were clustered together. The view zoomed in and displayed the Athena's profile within a larger empty space.

"That is probably Starbuck and Paul." Daniel surmised, "They're the only ones on the ship."

"If they're the only lifesigns the rest of the ship is controlled by droids." Sam pointed out, "I have security codes for the droids that Cora hacked on the Pegasus, jack, we might be able send a shut off command to disable the droids on the ship." There was a pregnant pause as everyone waited for jack's response.

"Can we… can we steal it?" He said hopefully.

"That's unlikely." Fred spoke up, "I doubt the jumper has the processing power to manage control of all of those droids at once, and a ship that size would take a lot of automation."

"You could probably set up a virtual network given enough time," Fola contributed, "But the droids would do a security reboot long before we could develop and transmit a patch for that. From what is aw on the Pegasus Cora had her hack prepared in advance. She knew her ship and who was on it. We have a copy of her program but there are a lot of changes to be made."

"Those guys might not let us get away with it either." Cameron said motioning towards the rest of the silent fleet.

"Alright so Carter does her… thing…" Jack waved a hand indifferently, "We fly in, land on the Athena, we fly out… and run like hell?"

"Could work." Said Armen, he glanced at Fred who nodded.

"We need to warn Starbuck." Sam said, "Without alerting the Sepratists. He's got to be ready to go, at a seconds notice."

"I may be able to assist in that regard Dr. Carter." Cora's audio interface spoke up.

Sam blinked.

"Um, how?" she asked, "They would trace any signal that the Athena can receive."

There was a pause. Then Cora said, "By directing a narrow band transmission at the Tylium drive of the Athena I can initiate a minor fluctuation on a repeating pattern. The systems responsible for monitoring engine function will process this signal."

Sam looked uncertain. Fred spoke up from the back.

"No you can't, that's not how those systems work."

"I assure you I can." Cora replied.

Jack glanced at Sam. "We'll try it." He decided. Fred threw up his hands in the back.

"Cora has access to a pretty significant database off advanced technology." Sam consoled Fred, "She hasn't been wrong so far."

"Sure what do I know, I'm just the Athena's engineer." Grumbled Fred. Roda shifted behind him.

"The force tells me this will work." He assured Fred. "Trust in the force, it watches over us, protects us." Fred gave Fola a suffering look.

"Oh I had no idea!" he exclaimed sarcastically, "If the FORCE says so then well…"

"Message has been sent." Cora replied, "Starbuck advised that we should wait a few moments more until the last of the Droideka's have left the cargo bay, unless we wish to try carrying them to the airlock."

Jack positioned the Jumper in front of the cavernous cargo bay. Some distance from the opening they could see through the forcefield the shape of the Athena, parked with her own cargo door open. A quartet of Droidekas followed a number of battledroids marching out of the bay.

"Athena is clear." Cora reported.

"Alright Carter send the signal." Sam ordered.

"Transmitting." Sam replied. The robots marching across the bay suddenly froze.

"here we go." O'Neill muttered. Gunning the jumper he flew through the force field and into the bay. Pivoting around, he carefully piloted it into the Athena's bay.

"Everybody out." He ordered, turning from his chair, "Teal'c Cameron do a sweep of the ship, get rid of the robots, Daniel you're with me, Sam you better hang back with the Jedi."

"A shot from the Zats will scramble their circuits." Fred offered, pulling one from the cabinet above him and handing it to Jack. He took another for himself. Jack noticed Siris had already pocketed one from somewhere butt decided not to make a point of it. Daniel had collected many when arming his rebellion on Earth and a fair number had been brought back with them

"Raala, head back to the engine room with Fred to make sure there are no hiccups." Armen ordered, "Sirus, Jarrol, you know where the turrets are, make sure we're ready for any trouble."

"My apprentice and I will head to the bridge." Chariss stated, as the two left.

"Sure, fine, whatever. " Jack muttered as the other's left he handed a zat to Carter. He gave her a quick kiss. "Watch yourself, I'll be back soon. " motioning Fola into the front, he closed the inside hatch behind him.

"Welcome back aboard the starship Athena." Said Starbuck's voice over the ships intercom, as the ship suddenly rocked "You might have noticed the rocking, nothing to be concerned about folks, we might experience some brief turbulence and then explode."

The Athena rocketed out of the CIS ship that had been holding it, drawing immediate fire from ships that were not immobilized but recognized that something was wrong. Corkscrewing evasively, the ship took a few shots on her shields. A solitary pilot watched from his position above the planet.

A flight off Droid fighters vectored in from a nearby ship but were shot down as Athena's dual quad lasers came alive. With one turret mounted on the spine of the ship behind the neck, and another dropping down from the chin, the little ship did not have complete defensive coverage but its pilot skillfully kept pursuing fighters from exploiting its blind spots. The observer noted the scarcity of shots impacting the shields with satisfaction. The powerful shields protecting the ship compensated for the fact that its hull was not well armored. Starbuck had had neither the time nor the resources to replace the entire outer hull and only key stress points had been reinforced. If the shields were weakened, Sepratist weapons would tear through the ship like a hot knife through butter.

The ship shrank in the distance and at last, clear off the planets gravity, disappeared in the blink off an eye. After a few minutes, the droid fighters returned to their berths and all was still once more.

"Well…" said Jubal, "Here I am."

"Good riddance." Jack said as he and Teal'c shoved the fifth and last battledroid into the the lower airlock.

"We'll eject them when we come out of hyperspace in a bit." Starbuck from the catwalk above. He surveyed the activity in the cargo bay."We have to replot when we're closer to the Hydian way. It'll shave a few days off our journey."

"Daniel and Cameron believe the situation is most urgent if we are to rescue the Jedi." Teal'c observed.

"Oh I agree." Starbuck stated, "We can't get a message through to the jedi, Admiral Screed is restricting hypercomm traffic. Chariss wanted to try to use her authorization codes but I uh… vetoed that idea."

"'Hi I am a Jedi, can you put me through to the Jedi Council?" Daniel contributed wryly ambling around the side of the jumper "Of course its important, you guys are plotting to murder the Jedi, and I need to warn them, sure I'll hold."

"The last thing we need is to broadcast the presence of two Jedi on the ship." Starbuck affirmed, "I'm already concerned about how my dealings with them will look if Palpatine succeeds, he could come after us next."

"Hey." Jack said, "Planning to fail is failing to plan, right Teal'c?" The jaffa nodded impassively, "We pop into orbit, head down in the jumper under cloak and…"

"Coruscant has a planetary shield." Starbuck pointed out, "Which will probably be up given the recent Separatist attack, getting in won't be that easy."

"Typical." O'Neill grumbled. He turned to Daniel.

"Paul says I'm fine. He's looking over Cameron right now." Daniel stated ancitipating jack's question. "Something about him doesn't seem right."

"A lot of people around here seem that way." Jack said as Siris stalked across the bay with Jarrol. The two had been instructed by Starbuck to assist in completing repairs to the jumper and arming for what would come next. "Speaking of odd, where's Early?"

Starbuck shifted uncomfortably, "He'll turn up, he always does."

Jack and Teal'c exchanged glances.

"The Athena has a couple of ah…" Starbuck coughed discretely, "Alternate vessel ID's we can use to fly in. Once we're beneath the shield we launch the Jumper under cloak."

"I want to be prepared for anything." Jack replied, "Sam thinks she'll have the Jumper's weapons operating soon, and Fola is installing some extra doo hickies"

"He is installing a set of shield generators so that we may be protected while we remain ccloaked." Teal'c clarified.

"You know Jarrol thinks he can use Fola's shop to fabricate some ammunition for your weapons." Starbuck commented.

"Yeah, well…" jack said, "Sam and I are going to watch."

"You could just go with blasters if you don't trust him." Starbuck said, "But he's pretty good with weapons."

"We know." Said Jack, "These blasters pack a nice punch, but you know I just don't like the whole, beam off light leading back to whoever shot it thing."

Starbuck frowned. "That's just the tracers jack, you can disable that in most models, itts just, harder to see where you're shots are going…"

"Well if Jarrol can modify our weapons, our government back home might find it useful." Daniel said, " One of the problems we ran into at the SGC was we lacked the technical ability to manufacture and maintain advanced weapons without you know…"

"A lot of work." Jack submitted. "Fola's looking into it too when he's done, and we're still at least a day out from Coruscant. They might have something ready by then."

"He charging you for that too?" Starbuck asked with a grin.

"It's on our tab." Jack said lightly.

"Chariss contracted him for his time not his services." Starbuck replied with udnerstanding, "and he's got a full workshop taking up half my cargo bay, Fred's been bugging me to ask if we can keep it."

"He was contracted to come back to Earth with us as a consultant too." Jack replied, which reminds me, Daniel, you seem to have made agreements of your own?"

"Yes well, we were under some duress." Daniel said, "There are things you need to know about who we're dealing with too."

"Oh I'm all ears." Jack said.

Daniel opened his mouth and then paused. Cameron had just come from the direction of paul's infirmary.

"Actually, I think Cameron wanted to tell you, if you'll excuse me, I was going to give Carter a hand in the jumper."

"Hey guys, what's up?" Cameron asked.

"Master, I have a question." Said Fola into the darkness.

"You should get some sleep Fola." Came the tired reply. "The next few hours could be all the rest you get for some time."

"Unless.." Fola said it before he thought about it. He clamped his mouth shut. He heard Chariss stirring, and in the dim light of their cabin he saw her sit up. He did the same. She sat beside him and placed her hand on his shoulder. Roda became aware that much of her body was revealed by the thin sleeping garment she wore, he forced himself not to stare. The cabin was well heated and he had chosen to sleep without a shirt. He was suddenly self conscious at his master's proximity.

"You are troubled." Said Chariss, "Fearful of what is to come."

"Yes." He admitted, somewhat uncomfortably. She sighed.

"It is natural to feel fear, my padawan." She said into the darkness around them. "We cannot surrender to it. Ours is a path of obedience."

"To the will of the force." Roda finished. "He became aware of her hand still on his shoulder.

"You have grown up much in the last few years Roda." Chariss said absently, "in time you will surpass me."

"Never…" Roda began.

"It is the way of things." Chariss said. "I am very proud of you. Whatever may come, remember that." She stroked his arm absently.

"Master." Roda replied delicately shifting away from her, "I am concerned for the future yes, but that is not what troubles me. I am curious about something else."

"Good." Chariss patted one of his hands. "What else?"

"Today you said the Seperatists must not get O'Neill." Roda replied his throat becoming dry. He wanted to shift away from his master again, but realized he was rapidly running out of space in which to retreat. He was increasingly self conscious and found the only possible retreat was in conversation.

"I referred to all of them." Chariss said suddenly guarded. She moved away and after a moment, Roda was forced to fill the space she ah delft cramped as he was by his posture. He forced himself to relax.

"Forgive me master, it sounded… like you meant O'Neill specifically." Roda said clearing his throat. "I wondered if there were something special about him."

"There is something special about all of us Roda..." Chariss said turning her face towards him. She was now very close, their faces inches apart. Roda found himself captivated by her eyes shimmering in the dark. "It is easy to lose sight of that Roda, whatever else happens tomorrow I want you to know you are very special to me." He glanced down and realized to his chagrin he was staring into her cleavage. "Whatever else happens Roda, come what may, we will still have each other. I will still be here for you."

Roda swallowed raising his eyes. Chariss met his gaze.

"Thank you master." He said at last. attempting to casually stand with his back to her. He fumbled for his robe. "I will meditate on what you have said." Chariss rose behind him, stretching languorously, returning to her side of the cabin.

"Later Roda, lie back down and try to sleep for now. We have a big day ahead of us. Afterwards we will talk more." The tone of her voice had command in it, and Roda felt himself obeying automatically.

Reluctantly Roda refolded his Robe and placed it beside his bed. He settled nervously into his bunk and Roda flipped off the tiny nightlight above her bed.

It would be hours later lying motionless in the dark listening to the peaceful sounds of his master's sleep when he would realize with a start she had not ever even remotely answered his question.


	20. The Torment Of Tantiss

Chapter 19 The Torment Of Tantiss

Starbuck sat in the silence of the cockpit. Hyperspace churned before him but his reverie ws interrupted as Armen sauntered up the stairs.

"Just like old times boss." He greeted amiably.

"Yeah.' Starbuck agreed sourly, "But you know I kind of liked not being shot at for a while."

Armen settled into the copilot's seat. The five minute warning on the hyperdrive beeped.

"Hey look we didn't do_ anything_ to piss of separatists."

"What was that little stunt with the Earthers then huh?" Starbuck asked irritably, "You the shoot first ask questions later type now Armen? That the kind of guy I let my mechanic run off with?"

"Raala was in the Ship the whole time out off danger." Armen said, "You know I promised I'd keep her safe."

"From what I can tell, this O'Neill fellow doesn't mess around." Starbuck replied, "And as a rule you don't mess with the Jedi."

"I can handle the jedi." Armen said stiffly, "And to be frank its Teal'c I keep a whether eye on. There's something… not quite right about him, but enough sizing up, that's not what I'm here for."

"And here I thought you missed my stalwart leadership and roguish charm." Starbuck grinned.

"Look, what Cameron said, what Daniel said." Armen said, "Do you believe them? About Palpatine? About the jedi?"

Starbuck considered, "I honestly don't know Jarrol, but I feel…" he closed his eyes, and Jarrol nodded. "Somethings brewing out there." He said opening his eyes and looking out. "Out there in the stars someone's moving pieces around I think."

"I get that too." Armen said, "And Siris has been restless. "

Starbuck turned his head. "She's always been gifted."

"Look I don't know if I like this." Armen said at last. "I mean we made the deal, we pretty much had to after what went down, and I spoke to Siris about that. From the way she told it these guys were black to the core, and it isn't just anybody that drops her, and the stories Cameron and Daniel tell well… We thought they were just nuts."

"Now you think they're right and you're having second thoughts." Starbuck surmised.

"We aren't backing down from a fight." Said Armen, "And a deal's a deal." He sighed, "But like you said, I have obligations now. If Palpatine is a Sith and he's about to turn the Republic on the Jedi, I mean, well… I don't want my family in the middle."

"We're about to hit the transfer point." Starbuck replied, "It's a six hour shot to Coruscant. If you want off, now's the time." He pulled out a fumarillo and put it in his mouth. "But I'll tell you one thing, I'd rather go into this with a trio of mandalorians at my ba.." the ship bucked mightily and Starbuck's cigar flew from his mouth. "Frak!" he spat, "What the Frak?" Alarms went off and Armen set about flipping switches and adjusting controls to stabilize the ship.

The Athena was rolling into real space haphazardly and Starbuck caught a glimpse of a massive orb that cut across the viewpoint and then was lost amid a flurry of stars.

"Where the frak are we." Starbuck demanded as he stabilized the ship. They had come out of hyperspace very close to a large tropical world. There was a commotion in the hall as O'Neill Siris and Chariss all arrived demanding to know what was going on.

"It's a planaet called "Wayland" Armen reported, wait, isn't Wayland..."

"Thats where Ba'al and Todd set up their headquarters." Starbuck replied, "Apparently they wanted our attention.

"We must investigate this world." Chariss declared with a somewhat distant expression, "The force calls to me..."

"What the hell?" Jack demanded, "What about the Jedi?"

"I believe the way to salvation is on that world." Chariss replied.

"It better be." Said Starbuck returning to the control room, "Because Fred tells me our hyperdrive is burned out by whatever yanked us from hyperspace. We're not gonna make it to Coruscant.

A fried hyperdrive motivator sat on the table before them.

"Most of its melted into composite scrap." Fred stated, "And actually, there was some radiation coming off of it at first that suggest something truly bizarre happened when we decelerated."

'So build another one." Jack suggested, "You have all those tools in the bay, you have Carter, don't you guys design these things?" he waved at Fola and Fred.

"We don't design them exactly..." Fola said, "We could probably cobble something together over a period of weeks if we had to but there's another option."

"Which is..." O'Neill prompted.

"The Tylium drive." Fred explained. "Athena was built with a rudimentary version of what you have on the Pegasus. It wasn't intended for interstellar use when it was built but it can be sort of.."

"Retrofitted." Fola supplied. "Based on several of the schematics Cora provided, we only need to realign several components, and improve shielding around certain parts of the drive to significantly improve performance."

"And you think you can do it?" asked Starbuck pre-empting Jack's response. "This is my ship." He continued with a glance at Jack. "We can send an SOS and wait for rescue to come, the planet is inhabited and we would be alright down there. I realize," he said putting a hand up at Daniel's impending objection, "That we are all that stands between the Jedi and extinction, but there is something else going on here, and we need to move carefully."

"Yeah, about that." Jack said.

"The minute we set foot in this galaxy we're caught up in intergalactic events." Sam supplied, "Out of a virtually infinite number of possible exit points we arrive in a hot zone. Now I couldn't find any correlation between our method of travel, and where we ended up. No gravitational attraction, no nearby singularities, we didn't even travel in a straight line, not to mention the time displacement."

"We were tipped off about Sith activity by Ba'al too." Armen volunteered suddenly, "We weren't on Corellia by accident, nor were we in that city by happenstance. We'd been watching that tapcafe for days."

"and a Sepratist Armada just happens arrive a day or so later." Cameron pointed out.

"I plotted the fastest course from that planet to Coruscant because of the time we lost reporting to the Jedi." Starbuck finished, "Which brought us here. Something is herding us here, or somewhere, we're being manipulated. I want to know who, and why."

"Well reader, what do you think?" Jack asked sarcastically. As the others exchanged confused glances he clarified, "Well you don't think this would make it to the movies, come on, itt has fanfic written all over it."

"What is he on about?" Jarrol asked Armen, who shrugged.

"Jack frequently breaks the fourth wall." Daniel supplied helpfully, "on Earth in a staged performance there are three walls, and the fourth is the seated audience. When an actor breaks character and addresses the audience its called…"

"Breaking the fourth wall, I get it." Starbuck replied, "But while we are being manipulated, this is as real as it gets."

"Just keep hanging those lanterns." O'Neill muttered.

"It is the will of the Force." Chariss declared, "It has brought us here, it calls us to the surface as well. This tylium drive, it will take time to construct, will it not, and fuel?"

"She's right actually." Fred replied, "We would need to land, not necessarily to save fuel, but to get to some of the drive assembly."

"There should be a base of the old Republic on this world." Chariss remarked furrowing her brow, "I believe it was deactivated some time ago, but there could be equipment of some use there."

"There's not much we need." Fred replied, "Fola brought all the tools we'd ever need for fixing the jumper, as long as nobody minds us appropriating a few things from his supplies."

"Doctor Carter and I have completed our repairs." Fola spoke up, "And depending on what we learn from upgrading the Athena there could be some benefit to your people as well Jack, the tylium engine model is much more compact, and may be compatible with the technology in the Jumper."

"See now that would be worth something." Cameron exclaimed, "The Pegasus is a big old bucket we can learn from, but if show up with a faster than light fighter…"

"Fine fine, take what you need." O'Neill waved his hand dismissively.

"Then its agreed." Starbuck replied, "We find the old base, get the ship back together and do our damndest to get to Coruscant before Palpatine makes his move."

"What do we do in the mean time about our little puppet master?" Cameron asked.

"There's nothing we can do." Starbuck declared, "Until we know more." Chariss, why don't you head up to the bridge and help Paul try to figure out the location of that base. Fred, Fola and Raala start figuring out what you need to get started. Jarrol and Siris, make sure we're ready for anything when we land." Those named began to move, and Samantha stood up as well. Jack casually touched her arm and she looked down at him. The room was finally emptied save for Armen, Roda and the people from Earth.

Roda looked at Starbuck.

"Something is not right with my master." He said at last. Teal'c nodded his head.

"Indeed."

"I didn't want to say it while she was in the room." Starbuck answered, "But there's something weird about that Jumper of yours. Cora can't _do_ half the things she's been doing."

"…and I was visited by an ancient in my cell." Cameron contributed, "Goes by the name off Adama."

"Adama." Starbuck said surprised.

"Heard of him?" Jack asked suspiciously.

"I'm not sure." Starbuck said thoughtfully, "Probably nothing."

"Look." Said Jack leaning on the table, "Cards on the table Captain, you've got just as many secrets as anyone else around here. Teal'c is inclined to trust Roda, and Cameron swears up and down Armen's ok…"

"Stockholm syndrome." Daniel muttered.

"…and I am personally inclined to think you're not in on…" he waved his hands around, "Whatever this is, but if we're gonna trust you, you better start coming clean."

Starbuck put his hands up. "Hey easy, I'm not hiding anything. I just need to sort some things out you see. It's all a jumble. Adama feels like… someone I knew, a long time ago…."

"Well from what Cameron told us, he wasn't forcing anything on us." Daniel said, "Just asking us to choose carefully."

"he actually made a point of saying he wanted to help but wasn't allowed to." Cameron added. "That we're all caught up in a larger game."

"Now that _does_ sound familiar." Starbuck commented.

"Tell me about it." Daniel grumbled, then paused, "Wait a minute…" he peered closely at Starbuck.

"Starbuck were you ascended?" he asked suddenly.

"A what?" Starbuck asked dubiously,

"Ascended, living on a higher plane, a being of light." Daniel elaborated gesticulating, "I was once helped to ascend to a higher plane of existence by a being known as Olma Desaala. It uh… didn't work out in the end, and when they sent me back, they erased my memory."

"There's a lot of ways to lose your memory." Armen said.

"No wait." Roda said, "Since the moment I've met you Daniel I have been struck by how unique your presence is in the Force. At first I could hardly sense you but the longer I've known you the more the feeling has grown. You are a beacon, Daniel, actually," he paused and glanced at Jack, "You are too, but Daniel with you I sense something beyond your subconscious. You possess an awareness unlike any I have ever met." He turned his head to Starbuck, "Except you."

"The Jedi were pretty interested in you for a while." Armen pointed out.

"Forget it." Cameron said dismissively, "Todd said he knew him on Atlantis before it crashed. Ascension is something I feel like he would have mentioned."

"Todd never even told me he knew me before I woke on Dagobah." Starbuck said surprised, he glanced at Armen, "Why would he never mention that?"

"He never even told us he knew the name of the city." Armen said

"Dagobah, now that rings a bell." Cameron said glancing at Jackson.

"it was extremely significant in the movies." Daniel said to the group at large.

"It would seem that you must return to Dagobah." Teal'c observed, "If you are to learn more about who you were."

"Could also go find this Todd guy." Jack pointed out, "None of this helps us at the moment. We need to keep an eye on Chariss."

"Especially on Tantiss." Roda added, "Something is at work down there and its working through her somehow."

"I say we ditch this whole Tantiss idea, and land on the other side of the planet." Armen said.

"Then we take off and nuke the whole site from orbit." Cameron said, "Sorry pal." He said to Armen, "Not how we do things."

"And how do you do things?" Armen asked sardonically.

"The hard way of course." Starbuck interjected, "There's only one way to find a puppet master."

"Follow the strings." Said Samantha glumly into the silence.


	21. The Torment of Tantiss Part 2

The Torment Of Tantiss Part 2

"That is not a deserted base." Jack concluded peering through his macro binoculars. Through the lush jungle foliage, half a dozen clone troopers held positions before a bunker entrance.

"Clearly the army reactivated the old fort." Chariss observed.

"Yeah, well, that's a wash then." Jack said resigned. Chariss looked at him quizzically.

"Cameron and Daniel said at some point in the next few days someone flips a switch that makes them go all ape and your kind." Jack clarified, "Not really something we want to walk into wouldn't you say?"

"Yet if they have not yet turned, they may have a hyperdrive unit we can use to prevent the fall of the Jedi." Chariss said, "I would think that is a risk worth the lives of Roda and myself."

"Fine." Said Jack, except we brought Carter Fola and Fred along with us. Your willing to risk their lives too?"

"We did not come to fight." Teal'c observed, "Merely to salvage."

"If there is concern, they can merely wait in the Jumper while it is cloaked." Chariss replied reasonably, "With Teal'c and my apprentice to stand guard, they will be perfectly safe. If they run into trouble they have merely to get to the Athena for help."

"And if trouble should reach the Athena?" Teal'c asked her.

"Right, well, fall back to the Jumper and we'll look at our options." Said jack guardedly. Chariss raised an eyebrow but acquiesced. Teal'c hefted his staff weapon and followed the team back. Some distance away Jack tapped his radio.

"Daniel?" Jack's voice crackled over the speaker. Daniel stepped over to the work table and snatched it up. They had landed Athena in the temperate zone of the planate, but well away from any of its indigenous population. The Athena was parked beneath a massive stand of ancient pines and tools were spread out before the cargo ramp as Fola Fred and Raala worked on the ship. The majority of the project concluded, Raala was closing up the last hatches and putting tools away. Cameron and Armen were making a show of guarding the ship, patrolling about the clearing, though both sensors and the remote landing ensured they would have no visitors. Daniel, finding himself with nothing to contribute had dedicated himself to quizzing Jarrol mercilessly on his understanding of events on Coruscant, the progress of the war, and anything else the man knew, hoping it would be of some use.

"Here Jack, what's up?" He asked glad for the break. Jarrol discretely moved away glad to be rid of him.

"We found the entrance to the mountain, but its crawling with troopers. Chariss wants to go in anyway."

Daniel paused for a second and glanced at Cameron coming up behind him, he clicked his radio again,

"Jack we don't know when order 66 will be issued, that's not a good idea."

"That's what I told her, but she insisted." O'Neill said, "She seems to think there's enough time to pull some strings, if you know what I mean."

"Copy that." Daniel said as Starbuck strode down the ramp, handing jarrol a spanner to bring to Fola. "Stand by."

"They found the entrance but the base is active." Cameron explained, "Chariss is insisting and Jack thinks this is it."

"He just gave the code." Daniel added.

"Daniel." Jack's voice crackled once more, "If things go south, we can bug out in the jumper, but would they be able to find the Athena? "

"That's a little hard to say Jack." Starbuck said as Daniel handed him the radio, "We've adjusted the drive, but we don't have anything protecting us from relativistic effects if we have to go faster than light. If they do find us, we'll have to consider that."

There was silence on the other end for a disturbing amount of time.

"Sam is trying to explain it to him." Daniel predicted.

"Yeah, look, whatever." O'Neill said, "Carter says if we have to we can expand theJumper's cloak. We'll check in with the jumper every hour via radio, you can monitor. The jumper can check in every half hour. If you don't hear from us, get Sam and the eggheads back on board. Don't put them in danger, got it?"

"Copy." Daniel answered.

"Why doesn't he just check in with us with his radio?" Jarrol asked

"The original SG-1 was using radios with Tokra crystal technology." Daniel said, "We're not sure if that's traceable with the technology of this galaxy, but we know that the cloak on the puddle jumper isn't. It's a safer bet that the Jumper can comm. Us using this," he held up a square shaped device that had been recovered from the Jumper, "Than it is that they wouldn't overhear us using this." He held up the radio.

"So instead of coming here. They'll follow the signal to there." Cameron interjected. "And they won't find anything there."

"I'm going to lend a hand to the Raala." Starbuck declared, "Its starting to sound like I don't want to be here."

"Colonel O'Neill you should let me do the talking." Chariss advised as they exited the foliage. A pair of clone troopers eyed them suspiciously and several more were jogging out off the mountain entrance towards them.

"Sure…talk… have fun." O'Neill said drily. "Don't mind me, I'm just a fly on the wall."

"Drop your weapons, hands up." A trooper barked through his helmet. Sighing Jack raised his arms.

"Just a fly on the wall…" He muttered.

"Well at least they didn't try to shoot 'em on sight." Fred muttered watching through the viewport. The Jumper hovered silently above the clearing, pods extended. Unknown to the Troopers they were being covered by the Jumpers newly installed weapons.

"They not well equipped for an assault on a Jedi master." Roda commented in a butter voice, "Still from what Cameron described, when order 66 is given, the clones will obey without question.

"_if _they give it." Samantha admonished. Behind her Teal'c and Roda exchanged a glance, and Fred shifted uncomfortably. Many in the group were increasingly cynical about their ability to get to Coruscant before it was too late.

"Doctor Carter I have a question." Teal'c began changing the subject, "if it is indeed possible to cloak the Athena, could we not simply extend the inertial dampeners as well?"

"These aren't the Jumper's original inertial dampeners." Fred explained, "The jumper used technology I've never seen before."

"Probably something to do with the time engine." Sam supplied.

"Right, " Said Fred, "And the two approaches are not the same. Not only could we not protect the Athena, but the time engine probably shouldn't be used until this is all sorted out."

"We're losing Jack's life signs." Sam said watching the HUD, "Something in the mountain is interfering with the life signs detector."

"I got a bad feeling about this." Fred muttered.

"Master Traven, Colonel O'Neill, I am General Camas." The general paused and looked at Jack, taking in his warn green fatigues and flack vest. "What military does your friend serve with Master Traven?"

"United Stated Airforce." Jack supplied shifting in his chair, theyw ere seated before the general's desk in a surprisingly spacious office., "I was retired, but you know, duty called," he furrowed his brow, "Or is, I WILL retire…"

"He is from another galaxy," Chariss explained, "And his story is complicated. Forgive my bluntness but I was unaware you were assigned to this facility?" Jack swiveled his head around and raised an eyebrow. Chariss did her best to ignore him, "I was under the impression that this mountain was under civilian direction."

"I am surprised you are familiar with this facility at all." Camas replied, "Intelligence has classified this location. This area is a matter of Republic security."

"Now, I'm a little curious." Jack wheedled, "When you secure a facility, do ya generally make a habit of dragging every passing space ship in?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Camas replied, "We deliberately positioned our space born assets outside the situation to avoid drawing attention to an otherwise undeveloped world."

Jack looked at Chariss then at the General. "Want to volunteer anything here?" he prodded Chariss.

"It seems you are more than willing." She replied blandly. Jack shot her an exasperated look, and looked back at Camas to catch a flicker of sympathy.

"Chariss, I am addressing you as one Jedi Master to another." Camas began, "You are clearly withholding information, your behavior borders on duplicity. One would think you would have learned from your brief time in the army the value of cooperation."

"I have said nothing duplicitous." Chariss replied unruffled

"No, now see there, you're wrong, I've known this guy five minutes and already I trust him more than you." O'Neill said, he turned back to Camas, "Our ship was jerked out of hyperdrive on our way to Coruscant to deliver important information, that may save all your Jedi asses. This lady claimed she had no idea where we were, what this place was, and yet suddenly she's "surprised" to see you in charge?" Jack turned to Chariss, "Who did you expect to find here Chariss?"

"I believe, she expected to see us." Rasped a throaty voice. Todd and Baal stood in the doorway.

"Oh here we go." Jack threw up his hands.

"I thought I told the two of you to stay out." Camas snapped, then turned to Chariss, "You know these two?"

"I have been investigating this project for some time on behalf of a third party who has only the best interests of the jedi order in mind." Chariss stated flatly.

"Is this investigation sanctioned by the Jedi Council?" Camas asked, "Are they even aware of it?"

"They are aware of my investigation." Chariss said guardedly, "I was directed by the council to investigate various suppliers of arms to the Clone Army to ensure that there was no double dealing going on."

Camas and Jack stared at her.

"You got _this_ from _that_?" O'Neill demanded incredulous

"Master Traven, you have far exceeded your authority." Camas stated matter of factly, "We need to consult the Jedi Council before proceeding any further." He made as if to rise.

"Theres more you should know." O'Neill insisted, "General, your entire order is about to be betrayed by the supreme chancellor." Camas sat back down.

"That is a very serious charge." He said at last, "What manner of betrayal do you suspect and what is your evidence?"

"They have no evidence." Chariss interjected, "O'Neill's two friends are from an alternate reality and they are describing events from a fictional holo program."

"That's not true!" Jack rebutted lamely, "We're from the alternate reality, Cameron and Daniel are from this one." Camas raised a speculative eyebrow. "..probably." Jack finished.

"I don't have time for this." Camas said at last, "Chariss you will stay on this base until the council is consulted." He waved a dismissive hand.

"Perhaps we can document the colonel's story and prepare a full report." Ba'al suggested Camas nodded.

"Fine. Whatever." Jack snapped "Men, women children, miscellaneous, " he gestured at Todd, "All cut down in a matter of days, by one of your own. When Skywalker goes rogue, that's blood on your hands Camas, you had the chance to stop it here and now. " he turned to Todd, "Lead on Dracula"

"Colonel O'Neill, I will remind you this is a secure facility." Camas added as they turned to go, "Do not attempt to leave this base."

After they left he leaned forward in his chair and put a fist under his chin. Try as he might he had detected no duplicity from O'Neill, the man was as straightforward as they came. Sighing he thumed his com. "seargeant, get me the jedi council on Coruscant, priority channel."

"I'll try sir. There's a lot of jamming going on because of the attack." Came the reply.

"Do or do not sergeant." Camas answered, "There is no try."

"You're betraying your own people." Jack accused as Chariss followed behind him. Ba'al and Todd led the way.

"I am doing what is best for the jedi order." Chariss replied tersely.

"Everybody hold onto something. I feel a rant coming on…" Jack said warningly

"The jedi have become just as corrupt as the Republic. Undisciplined, weak, liberal." Chariss stated, "The sort that Daniel Jackson would relate well to. They have lost sight of the awesome responsibility we have to the force. In my travels I discovered a third party who believes this as I do." Jack paused and turned to face her.

"You knew all along about Palpatine?" he said incredulously.

"I was forewarned sometime ago about a possible future." Chariss replied, "That could include such a betrayal, it has been factored into our plans."

"If you would follow us Colonel?" Ba'al prompted placing a hand on Jack's shoulder. His eyes flashed and he squeezed and Jack winced at a slight crackling, "There's no need for this to become… unpleasant"

Jack flinched and gently lifted the offending hand off his shoulder, making a show of brushing it off, "proceed." He encouraged.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Roda stated the third in the last hour to do so.

The radio squawked. "Roda are you there?" Static did not mask the sound of Chariss' voice."

"Yes Master, is everything alright?" Roda spoke into the radio Sam proffered, "Where's Jack?"

"He is speaking with the base commander." Chariss replied, "I wanted to be sure we didn't miss the check in, so he gave me his device."

Sam and Teal'c exchanged glances. Jack had stipulated that was not to be accepted. Roda's face had fallen but he composed himself. "Very well master, do you wish us to join you?"

There was a pause and Chariss said at last, "Wait there my padawan, I'm sure all is well but I wish to be sure. We will check in again."

"Master, what of the repairs to _Athena_?" Roda asked, "We must get to Coruscant!"

"There is another Jedi here, Master Iri Camas." Chariss assured through the static, "He has secure codes and will alert the Jedi Council. Stay where you are Roda, keep your cloak up, we will speak again." The static reduced considerably as she ended the com with a click.

"We must move to a new location immediately." Teal'c stated. He took Jack's position.

"You can fly this?" Sam asked, "Jack initialized it but…" The Jumper lifted smoothly and headed towards the mountains.

"Now it should be mentioned," Fred began, "The jumper's cloak might be somewhat compromised by our repairs. We didn't have time to verify that using a different material to seal the hull, and changing some of the core systems hasn't made us somewhat more visibly."

"The Seperatists didn't see us." Sam pointed out.

"True but they probably weren't scanning their own cargo bay." Fred pointed out.

"What about the main hanger bay?" Roda asked, "We can hide in plain site."

"Wouldn't they be using that?" Fola asked.

"Not necessarily." Sam said, "We've seen no space traffic of any kind, and when we scanned the mountain earlier it detected a smaller bay further up the mountain with heat emissions."

"It would seem they are only using the smaller bay at the moment." Teal'c surmised. Before them the cavernous opening came into view, a mid sized freighter was parked on one side, as well as a second smaller ship.

"Is that… Jubal's shuttle?" Sam asked, "Whats it doing here?"

"Someone must have towed it here." Roda said, "It didn't have a hyperdrive, and that was a pretty unique docking collar on the Athena."

"Well the bay's deserted aside from that." Sam stated, "We're overdue for a contact with Athena too."

"We will land until we have more information." Teal'c decided, "Shutting down all that is unnecessary to avoid detection. We can do little else at the moment."

"Jack never checked in, Chariss did it for him." Armen reported to Cameron, "We need to begin contingency planning." He turned to Starbuck, "Jubal's shuttle was found on site as well, as a freighter matching one which is registered to Ba'al."

"Something you want to tell us Starbuck?" Daniel asked crossing his arms and regarding the man carefully.

"Jubal was trailing ba'al and Todd." Starbuck explained, "I sent him a message using the old wireless set on the bridge, the only receivers tuned to it are in the shuttles."

"You're mentioning this now?" Cameron asked.

"How could it have seemed important?" Starbuck asked, "Ba'al and Todd were my problem, they were up to something, but they were _my _crew, I couldn't have known it was related."

"it's not like Jubal was going anywhere anyway." Paul noted, "he couldn't rendezvous with us without giving our position away, or getting himself blown out of the sky."

"He's a tracker, I let him do his thing." Starbuck answered, "The question is do ba'al and Todd know his mission."

"They seem to have given him a ride." Cameron pointed out, "You usually ask hitch hiker's there destination."

"He might have just asked." Paul pointed out. "Ba'al and Todd wouldn't necessarily think it strange, given the situation."

"Just old ship mates helping each other out." Cameron commented, "Well answer me this, how did they get here, ahead of us, and more importantly does their hyper drive work?"

"There are many useful artifacts here on this base Colonel." Ba'al explained swiping a card through a door slot. "Some recovered from the city of Atlantis, some well, you just needed to know where to look."

"My companion and I are, like yourself, somewhat displaced in time." Todd explained, "neither of us wishes to return where we came from without certain, advantages."

"So you're collecting junk from all over the…" Jack paused mid sentence as the door opened.

Before him lay a well lit store room, vast and cavernous. Work stations were set up in various areas and researchers poured over various artifacts. Conspicuous among such artifacts were a looming Stargate and a battered puddle jumper.

"Those from Atlantis?" O'Neill asked.

"In a manner of speaking." Ba'al replied. "You see Atlantis, our Atlantis, is in ruins, sinking beneath the mud on Dagobah. The Atlantis in this reality however, still awaits discovery in the Pegasus galaxy."

"isn't that exciting." O'Neill asked a sarcastic twinkle in his eyes, "Go get 'em tiger."

"Unfortunately," Ba'al continued testily, "The stargate on our Atlantis is useless to us, the city blocks incoming wormhole because of certain failsafes."

"The city believes it is talking to itself." Todd explained, "We could not program the gate to stop sending its ID and time stamp. The Atlantis in this universe believed it was a future Atlantis and blocked access."

Jack looked from one to the other. He raised both eyebrows at Ba'al to continue.

"So we found this stargate." Ba'al said irritably, "Note that it is different in design from those in either Pegasus or what you call the Milky Way." He rolled his eyes. "We could find no DHD, and our attempts to manufacture one have proven unsuccessful."

"We believe the DHD on the Jumper will allow us to dial other stargates in this galaxy." Todd explained, possibly even Atlantis itself. The problem is…"

"You don't have the keys" jack turned to Chariss. "So that's it? That's why it was so urgent you bring me here?"

"You do have the ancient gene we require." Chariss stated. "These two are now working with my associate."

"We have agreed to provide sanctuary to a select few Jedi whom Chariss has identified." Todd elaborated, "In exchange for certain, services."

"So you see Colonel, you can still achieve part of what you set out to do." Ba'al explained, "You can still save the Jedi, in a way, perhaps in time, with a base of operations, they could even strike back at the Empire. With our assistance of course."

"I'd love to see the fine point in that contract." O'Neill muttered.

"Imagine it Colonel." Ba'al persisted, "An army of Jaffa lead by the jedi, liberating Coruscant far sooner than in the time line your Cameron Mitchell outlines. Their culture preserved, their families saved."

"Well call me cynical…" jack observed caustically, "But that army of jedi and jaffa, could just as readily conquer MY galaxy, as well as this one, and… say," he turned to Todd, "Yours too!"

"I have no need to conquer my galaxy." Todd demurred, "merely to solve a bit of a food shortage. You see the force that permeates this galaxy, is composed of miniscule creatures very similar to those in my blood." Todd inspected his hand closely, "The rebellion discovered quite by accident, a means of blending the two quite readily." Rage crept into his voice, "Of course we will need to develop a method that doesn't require the participation of an Irratus bug."

"My colleague here was the unfortunate victim of shall we say, some enhanced interrogation by a Sith named Luminara ." Ba'al explained, "Allegedly a rogue agent of the Rebellion, when he was 'rescued' he presented them with somewhat of a conundrum."

"The force was all but eradicated in their war." Todd explained, "They were afraid it couldn't sustain me, yet they had no idea how to reverse the process."

"This guy feeds on Jedi, and you want to be friends with him?" O'Neill demanded.

"He doesn't feed on the Jedi, he feeds on the force itself." Chariss replied, "and as I understand it, permitting his kind to change would permit them to feed without ending human lives, quite a bargain wouldn't you say? The force spreads itself, a colony of Jedi would produce more than enough midichlorians to fill their galaxy within months, with judicious use of a stargate network."

"Such emissaries would be necessary of course to recruit potential Jaffa for my armies." Ba'al concluded smugly. "What is it to be Colonel, await the extinction of the Jedi en masse, or aid us in our plans. When we are through there will be three galaxies united under a new order."

"Whys it always about a new order, what's wrong with the old order." Jack replied, "You know, freedom, democracy…" he trailed off looking at his audience, "Etc, Etc…"

"Democracy is a wonderful idea." Ba'al replied, "I find it encourages a particularly delicious phenomenon known as capitalism, unfortunately, a democracy is weak."

"There are forces approaching our galaxies even now, " Todd whispered conspiratorially, "Which threaten the lives and freedom of all sentient beings. Do not forget Colonel, we have seen the future. The Cylons, The Asgard, The Replicators, The Vong, The Ori. With our forces combined we could crush these threats, we could save lives. Imagine the power of this alliance."

"Or you could gain the attention of someone new, and more powerful." O'neill pointed out, "Seems like that happens a lot out here."

"We do not have time for this Colonel." Chariss replied, "The hour is near at hand according to my sources. At this time, Mace Windu will soon be on his way to arrest the Supreme Chancellor. He will fail, and the Chancellor will give the orders that will wipe out the Jedi."

"What do you want me to do about it?" O'Neill demanded.

"There is a stargate hidden in a chamber beneath the jedi temple." Chariss explained, "We placed it there months ago believing a way could be found to activate it. You will fly us through the Stargate and facilitate an evacuation of those who will be gathered. These will form the basis of a new Jedi order."

"Hold on hold on, What if we can't dial Atlantis?" Jack said as Ba'al began to shove him, "What if someone finds the stargate and figures out how to dial in here? You're sitting ducks!"

"There is a hypermatter generator that will provide all of the power we would require to dial Atlantis, and that is a Lantean puddle jumper." Ba'al replied testily propelling O'Neill forward, "There is a shield around our stargate which prevents unauthorized travel, and if necessary, there is an aperture in the ceiling that leads to the landing bay, or hadn't you wondered how we got all of this down here in the first place. If the gate is compromised we will simply move it or destroy it."

Suddenly the mountain shook and alarms blared. Clone troopers began running everywhere.

"Control this, is Ba'al" the Goa'uld shouted into a com link, "What is happening?"

"An explosion just crippled our communications array." A terse voice replied, "We are tracking a small transport maneuvering around the mountain firing on our guard house."

"How did they get close enough to fire a shot?" Ba'al demanded, "Can we contact our space forces?"

"Negative." Replied the control room, "General Camas cannot make contact."

"This is a diversion." Ba'al said to Todd, "Starbuck is trying to interfere."

"We never found Early, he may be loose in the base." Todd replied. "We cannot let this hamper our plans, time is short."

"Something is wrong." Chariss stated drawing her light saber, "A disturbance…"

Before her the puddle jumper decloaked. Frightened researchers already unnerved by the explosion began to panic, running every which way.

"Drop your weapons and release Colonel O'Neill." Teal'c's voice thundered from the jumper, "or I will destroy you."

"You would not risk killing the Colonel." Ba'al declared. He raised a blaster to Jack who put his hands up.

"Shoot him Teal'c." Jack suggested, "he's a punk." He glanced at Ba'al, "no offense."

Suddenly the blaster was ripped from Ba'al's hand and a figure dropped from behind the Jumper.

"Master." Roda said flatly, his light saber drawn, "What is the meaning of this."

"Stand down my Padawan, I don't care for your behavior." Chariss warned.

"What is happening Master?" Said Roda, his voice still respectful, controlled, "This… does not look good."

"I do not need to explain myself to you." Chariss declared her voice cracking a bit, she held her light saber ready and Todd and Ba'al backed away, Jack moved toward the opposite direction.

"Cut to the chase Traven, you're about to betray your own order." O'Neill snapped, "Are you going to fight your own apprentice now?"

"Is this true?" Roda asked. "Have you betrayed the Jedi master?"

"I am trying to save the Jedi." Snapped Chariss, "I wanted you safe until it was over."

"hey." O'Neill said, "Its not over yet. Give me the address for Coruscant."

"What?" Chariss blinked.

"We can warn the Jedi, and you can recruit whoever the hell you want to join your little party." O'Neill said, "It doesn't have to end this way."

"he's right." Todd said, "We can still go to Pegasus, we can still…"

"You buffoon." Ba'al chastised him, "They aren't going to let us near Atlantis now."

Todd whirled on Ba'al, "I know that, "He grated, "But it could have been left unsaid, and negotiated at a… better time." The goa'uld stepped back.

"Come with us Master, help us save the Jedi!" Roda pleaded, "Its all we know, our friends, our family…"

"Look out!" Shouted Chariss whirling. Several clone troopers had exited the lift behind them and were lining up on her. With a snap hiss, she ignited her light saber. As they opened fire, Jack threw himself out of the way. Todd caught a glancing blow as ba'al ducked behind him and under cover.

"Apologies my friend." The Goa'uld said nervously as the furious wraith rounded on him, whatever else was to be said was cut off as Todd suddenly drove his hand into Ba'al's chest.

"Apology accepted." The Wraith declared and he fed. With a thunder clap the blasters on the Jumper opened up on the clone troopers who scattered. Chariss and Roda charged into their midst and began striking them down. The Jumper dropped obligingly for Jack.

"Give me a gun." Jack snapped, "Sam you think you can fly this thing?"

"Um, hello?" Fred said waving, "Design star fighters over here, obviously I'm a pilot."

"Fine whatever, stay in the area." Jack ordered as he put a new vest on, "Teal'c with me, if Chariss gets mowed down by those goons we loose our last chance to get to Coruscant."

"Does she even know the coordinates?" Fola asked hovering anxiously inside the Jumper as Teal'c stepped out. Jack checked the clip on a p90 and grabbed a pile of trinium clips.

"Who knows." Jack answered rolling his eyes, "Where the hell is Starbuck?"

"He was on approach when the comm. relay blew." Fola answered, "It seems the final transmission was an order to initiate "order 66"

"Figures" O'Neill stated, "Come on Teal'c."

"We can't land in all this." Starbuck said, as the ship shuddered. "We get to close they'll blow us out of the sky."

"We have a comm. from the surface." Paul stated, "Not the Jumper, its Jubal."

"Early?" Starbuck asked thumbing a switch, "Where the frak are you?"

"You like my little diversion?" Jubal asked, "Saved some lives it did."

"It screwed us over you asshole." Carmeron shouted from behind Paul, "Starbuck was bringing us in low to avoid detection." There was a pause.

"The best laid plans of mice and men go oft awry." Came the response, "Does that seem right to you?"

"It gets me every time." Paul said dryly. "Perhaps you would care to elaborate."

"Ba'al and Todd have a device, they needed Colonel O'Neill's help to activate." Jubal answered, "I followed them here, they thought they found my ship latched onto their hull, but they found only a shell, because my ship was their ship."

"yeah, it boggles the mind." Cameron deadpanned, "You snuck aboard, we got that what device did they have and what happened to O'Neill."

"They call it a stargate." Early said, But Jack's friends were on the way, he just needed a diversion. I didn't realize a diversion was already happening. Two for the price of one you might say."

"What do you mean, what else is happening." Daniel asked speaking at last. He had a sinking feeling he knew what Jubal would say.

"An order, number 66. The jedi are traitors, kill them."

Thoom! Thoom Thoom! Teal'c staff blasts pounded trooper after trooper, echoed by the staccato of Jack's weapon. The trinum tipped armor piercing bullets penetrated the armor of the clone troopers but ricocheted inside tearing apart the soft tissue within. Under fire at range with the Jedi in their midst, three dozen clone troopers fell in a matter of minutes. The jedi were breathing heavily, and their robes were burned and torn from blaster fire in proximity. Roda had dropped his out outer robe for added mobility.

"It's all or nothing Chariss, nows the time." O'Neill shouted as the last trooper fell, "Give us the gate address to Coruscant and we'll see who we can save."

"I don't have the address." Chariss said bitterly, "I don't even know how the gate works. I avhe failed."

"O'Neill." Teal'c intoned, what of this one?" he pointed at Todd. Feeding on ba'al had enabled him to regenerate most of his wounds but he was still weak.

"Don't bother asking, I'll give you the address." Todd replied sketching them on the ground in ba'al's blood, "Call it an act of good faith."

"You want us to take you with us." O'neill hazarded a guess."

"If you would be so kind." The Wraith replied.

"No dice." O'Neill replied.

"Ah, but you need me now." The Wraith stated, "Because you don't have the coordinates to return."

"Teal'c grab one of those trooper's gloves." O'Neill ordered, "Dn't even think about taking this off." He said tossing it to the wraith. He turned to Roda and Chariss.

"My master will guard this room." Roda stated, "She is confident that a Jedi is worth a hundred clone troopers, and she does not believe there are many left in this facility."

"it was not generally known." Chariss added, "But there were an extremely limited number of Clone troopers produced, because the Trade Federation's forces were also quite limited. What is portrayed as a galactic insurrection on the holonet is in fact a limited engagement."

Jack nodded, "Roda come with us, we need them to trust us. He sprinted for the Jumper

"We've got company." Paul noted, "Three Acclimator class star destroyers closing on our position.

"Jack says he's going to try to gate to Coruscant and rescue whatever Jedi he can." Daniel reported holding the ancient comm.

"We can't get through all that." Starbuck noted the hail of turbolaser fire tracing them, "The only reason we're in one piece is distance, and when those ships get here they're going to have fighters."

"I say we break off and take cover." Cameron suggested, "Wait for jack's call and haul ass back to the mountain to pick up whoever we can."

"There is another option." Paul stated, "If the gate is all we require, why not simply have Jubal bring it to us?"

There was a stunned silence.

"The shuttle's got a grappler claw." Starbuck commented, "He could fly down the service shaft same as the jumper and pick it up."

"Yeah, what if people start walking through it when its in the air?" Cameron demanded.

"We need to move." Starbuck decided, "Get Jubal on the horn, he's about to have a whole lott of company."


	22. Momento Mori

**Momento Mori**

The jumper erupted through the gate and clunked to the ground. A moment later Jack and Teal'c sprinted down the ramp checking the vicinity. The Stargate was in fact embedded in a wall as a decorative display. The formation of the event Horizon had carved deep into the wall the Gate was set into and erupted from the side of the building. Jack gave the all clear that the darkened hall was secure. Tod followed them down the ramp. Fola hovered at the entrance twin blasters in his hands.

The room was dark, an underbasement of the jedi temple. Jack could hear faint screams, and blaster fire overhead, and he shuddered.

"I have given you the coordinates to both Tantiss, and Atlantis where it now lies on Dagobah." Todd explained, "I will make my own way from here."

"Hold on." Jack said, "How do I know you're not gonna…" he gestured at Todd's gloves.

"You don't. " The Wraith freely admitted, "But as I said, I have no need to feed for sustenance.." He gave a nasty smile. "There are things about Ba'al you do not have time to learn Colonel, suffice it to say, I have just done you a great service killing him. He worked for another who well, lets just say its better that it end this way for all of us."

Jack stared at the wraith incredulously.

"Jack we don't have time for this." Roda said insistently, "I activated the signal Chariss gave me but we need to get up there."

"Fine go." O'Neill waved off the Wraith.

"One more thing Colonel." The Wraith added pausing, "Do not forget the program that has been loaded into your Jumper's memory. Once the Jumper passes through the stargate the program will execute."

"Yeah yeah I got it." Jack waved his hand, "The memory will be erased, the stargate will burn out, it'll become a very expensive lawn ornament."

"be sure to activate it before you go." Todd warned, "Or the Empire will follow you to tantiss, and if they should determine how to use that stargate…"

"They'll find Atlantis, they'll learn about Earth, look we're a little short on time here." Jack said, and the wraith turned to go. "Hey try to be as distracting as possible when you leave!" he called after him. He turned to Roda, "Fred, keep that jumper warmed up, Roda, lead the way."

Chariss sat by the stargate sitting cross legged, meditating.

"You have done well, my apprentice." A voice intoned. A man strode from behind overturned desks.

"Iblis." Chariss replied, "I have failed you, I have failed the Jedi."

"Yes you have." Iblis replied, "As I knew you would."

Chariss was taken aback, "But, master, " She fumbled for words, "The Jedi are dying, I saved none of them."

"You were never capable of altering that reality." Iblis said, "Still your efforts have served my purpose." Iblis peered at her troubled expression and seemed to grow irate. "There is a problem here Traven? You deluded yourself into believing you could accomplish your goals while serving me, I assure you that was never the case." He towered over her.

Traven caught her breath as she sensed a shock wave tear through the force. "Master, please, I can feel them dying!"

"Then they die." Iblis replied, "let each death be a testament to the reality of your existence Chariss, there is no freedom, there is only my will. All is as I wish it to be. Your role is not to question, not to "choose" or "Believe"" he said mockingly, "What is your role Chariss?"

"My role is to obey." Chariss bowed her head apologetically, shuddering as more deaths echoed through the Force. "I have failed to grasp this master."

"yet your failure is not yet complete Chariss, you have not yet truly found humility." Iblis noted, "You still believe that deep inside some can be saved? For this sin, I will punish you.."

"What more must I endure?" Chariss moaned looking up at him, "I have given up everything, even my Padawan."

"You have not given up everything." Iblis stated flatly, "You must be made to see that hope is the greatest error of them all, an insult to me. I do not accept divided faith Chariss, and where there is hope, there is faith in one's ability to discern good from evil, truth from lie. You will give yourself to me, body and spirit. You will die."

"But what of your plans?" Chariss implored, "Without the Jedi, we cannot take the Wraith, we cannot take Pegasus, we cannot take the Jaffa, without them how are we to seize this galaxy for your worship?"

"My plans are never thwarted." Iblis assured her, "Your view is limited Chariss, your role is obedience. Only I may know my full purpose."

"I will obey of course my master." Chariss assured him, "What is it you wish me to do?"

"Foolish child." Iblis mockedher, "have you heard nothing I have said. "'what must you do?' Do you imagine I need to tell you? My will is absolute. You need not know my wishes, merely know that what comes is my will. Your part in my plans was assured from the moment you gave yourself to me." He brushed the top of her head and she closed her eyes reveling in the contact.

"Traven!" a voice shouted, "Traven! You're alive!" it was Camas. He was bloodied and disheveled but unharmed. He jogged towards her skipping around the piles of dead clone troopers."The other's have fallen, the clones have betrayed us we must run!"

"We cannot." Chariss replied shaking herself, Iblis had vanished. "O'Neill has used this device to travel to Coruscant, in the hopes of rescuing those at the Jedi temple."

Camas skidded to a halt. "What? Chariss there are hundreds of clone troopers about to burst through that door! They have orders to kill every Jedi in the galaxy!"

"There aren't a hundred left on the base." Chariss replied, "Regardless we must hold this position, it is our obligation, our responsibility to the Force."

"Is that a ship?" Camas demanded poking at the jumper "Can it fly?"

"There is a freighter in the landing bay above." Chariss declared pointing at the opening in the ceiling, "If you must flee, that is the way, I will stand here."

"Chariss be reasonable!" Camas implored, "We are all affected by the turbulence in the force, you must clear your mind! There _are _hundreds, I've seem them with my own eyes, and even so, with the force in this state, we cannot be sure of our abilities. If you stay you will die, most likely you won't even hold this position long enough for your friends to return."

"I will stand here." Chariss reaffirmed, "I will not run from my responsibilities, I will not cower before my enemy, I am a Jedi, a guardian of the Republic.

"Then you are lost." Camas declared giving up at last, "I must go to save my family, take care Master Traven." With a great leap he bounded to the top of the Jumper. Leaping again he hoisted himself up a pipe running along the ceiling and clambered out of sight. Moments later the turbo lift door opened and Troopers emerged and began firing. Chariss lit her saber and deflected the bolts back at those who fired them.

"This floor is too hot." Jack said. He glanced at the Lantean life signs detector he had found in the jumper. Though it couldn't discriminate between Jedi and Clone, Jack was fairly certain that the dots moving in orderly precise groups were troops. The more scattered disorderly dots were vanishing at an alarming rate as the groups proceeded upwards through the temple.

"This is the ground floor Jack." Roda hissed, "We have to get in if we're to rescue at least the younglings!"

"We need a diversion…not you." Jack hissed grabbing Roda by the scruff as he moved forward, "Damnit Roda, think for a moment, these guys are trained to kill Jedi, and they're doing a pretty damn good job of it, you wouldn't be a diversion you'd be a nuisance."

"Anakin's up there, I can feel him." Roda said peering up at the stairwell.

"O'Neill!" Teal'c hissed from their rear, suddenly O'Neill heard a snap hiss. Teal'c stood holding his zat on a trio of Jedi, one had his saber lit.

"Roda!" the man exclaimed, "Who is this? Where is your master? Are you alright?"

"Master Desata!" Roda greeted him joyfully, "This is Teal'c, this is colonel O'Neill, we've come to evacuate you."

"Master Traven sent instruction." Desata said, "emergency precautions different from the general precautions off the Jedi order, what did she know of this?" he sounded angry.

"I don't know." Roda answered truthfully, "She has not been honest with me, but I believe she somehow foresaw what was to come."

"Her failure to warn the council of this betrayal, has cost us many lives." Desata said bitterly, "Even now, Republic commandos are exterminating us, there is a rumor that.." He swallowed. More jedi were dropping down from a vent in the ceiling behind him, "This one has a dark presence within him." He gestured at Teal'c, "I nearly killed him."

"It would not have been so easy." Teal'c said defiantly, "The presence you sense is a larval Goa'uld within me, it cannot hurt you."

"He is no threat." Roda assured the Jedi, "He's risking himself to help you, you must follow him back the way we came, there is a device that will transport you off planet."

"We cannot go!" cried a Padawan behind Desata, "We must fight back, we can organize…"

"No." Desata said bitterly putting a hand up, "We must save who we can first. Perhaps later we can return for survivors." He paused looking around. "Is this all there are?" he asked sadly, about eight padawans and three knights stood uncertainly in the hall.

"Derec's group was ambushed." Spoke up one of the padawans, "I don't think they made it."

"Teal'c show them the way." O'Neill ordered, "Then get back here. Lets see what we can do with that vent." Turning back to the stairwell he kept one eye on the stairs, another on the lifesigns detector.

"Do you understand the plan Jubal?" Starbuck asked tersely his voice echoing over the ear piece., "We need you to fly down the access tube grab the stargate with the grappler claw and fly it back up."

"One thing at a time." Jubal muttered aiming his finely crafted sniper rifle. He was struggling to draw a bead on a pair of troopers when a figure sprang from the access tube, igniting his light saber. Jubal blinked. Suddenly a howling wind erupted in the landing bay and objects lifted themselves up and began pelting the clone troopers. Jubal took careful aim and blew the head off a clone trooper.

"The plan has changed." Jubal remarked picking off another, "it seems a jedi has entered into the mix."

"Chariss?" Starbuck asked over the mic.

"No, there is another." Jubal replied, "he's tearing those clones to pieces, if this isn't the dark side, I don't want to know what is."

"He's not dark." Starbuck said after a moment, "But he's determined to get to his family, don't get in his way Jubal."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Jubal said as the figure impaled a clone trooper and threw out a hand. The transport groaned, and then began to roll sideways. Jubal blasted another clone trooper struggling to his feet against the hurricane around them and with a crash the transport finally rolled over the edge of the bay destined for the forest below. The wind died down leaving the wounded and dying moaning. The Jedi sprinted up the ramp of the freighter and began to power it's system.

"No power in the verse can stop him." Jubal whispered into the mic.

Chariss fought.

Unknown to her one of the researchers still cowered beneath his desk, long forgotten amid a pile of overturned furniture, exotic artifacts and even the bodies of slain clone troopers. This man would later escape to seek refuge among the natives of Wayland and he would tell them a legend. He would tell them of a powerful people who once strode the stars. He would tell them of their betrayal, by one of their own, a tale pieced together from what he had overheard.

He would tell them of the battle to hold the stargate.

Amid the humming light saber, and as the air burned with blaster fire, Chariss wove between her attackers deflecting and evading the inevitable. She immersed herself in the turbulent force, Like a candle flickering defiantly in a hurricane, she fortified herself as best she could against the coming darkness. She saw her fate carved in the force written by her own arrogance, yet she could not yield. She was forced to hurl herself into the midst of the clone troopers to by herself time, she saw her future etched a little further this way, yet in the corner of her awareness she knew that abandoning her position by the Stargate would have dire consequences. She felt terror and despair breaking free within her, felt her moods shift, her attention shorten, she felt her breath catch and she struggled to hold back the tide. She fought the growing uncertainty within her the only way she knew how. She seized on the litany of her life, the code etched deep within her spirit and drew comfort from it

_There is no emotion, there is peace._

. Moving between moments she snatched at fragments of thought as she reacted again and again to threats before her. A trooper raising a weapon to fire, the butt of a carbine swung at her back, a thermal detonator tossed amid a crowd of comrades, all dedicated to destroying her.

_There is no ignorance, there is knowledge._

Daniel's voice echoed in her mind as he spoke of the future.

"Luke Skywalker will grow up one day and defeat the Emperor. There is still good in Anakin, and Luke will bring that out…" Daniel had been describing a future he hope to avert, but Chariss saw in that moment, that all was not lost. Even as hope thrilled within her, she squashed it down, feeling yet another shift, another attempt by her brain to respond with feelings.

_There is no passion, there is serenity._

"Serenity Valley." Jubal said, "Greatest battle of the first civil war. Browncoats should've won that one, you know why? Because it wasn't personal. They just wanted freedom, the Alliance wouldn't let them have it. They did the math. The Alliance now, they despised the browncoats, they hated them. They loathed a pack of upstart inbred degenerates putting on airs. The browncoats? They just set about doing what needed to be done."

_There is no Chaos, there is Order._

"I fought in civil war twice." Paul said across the table to Daniel, "I was on the wrong side the first time. I wanted peace, I wanted order." He leaned forward, "I felt that death was the ultimate form of order. Those who could not embrace us willingly…" he left the thought unfinished.

_There is no death, there is the Force._

"The first ones are here, how do I dial?" Fred asked. Teal'c led nearly a dozen jedi into the large chamber. He seemed to be speaking to them. He gestured to theg ate then turned and signaled Sam and Fred. Sam obligingly tapped out the commands on the DHD. "Oh, so… that's what that's for." He said sheepishly..

Suddenly a clone trooper opened fire from the doorway of the opposite end off the chamber. A lightsbaer flashed up easily deflecting it.

"Everyone hold on." Fred ordered lifting the Jumper up and swiveling it around. With the shields raised he moved the Jumper forward quickly. Plowing into the trooper and the doorway he blocked the entrance.

"Their coming in from the east!" Fola shouted, taking a shot from the cover of the still open jumper. "And the west!"

"Kriff, how many doors does this room have?" fred complained. A schematic popped up in front of him outlining the room and six entrances, "Sam what the hell is this?" he gestured and the box disappeared. Sam realized Fred must have the Lantean gene.

"Sam I need help back here." Fola said as a blaster bolt hit the cabinet beside him. Sam grabbed a zat and crawled along the floor as Jack had shown her. She opened fire from the jumper as Jedi began to sprint through the gate. Four had taken up a perimeter, but one of the Padawans had already been hit. Another helped him to his feet and hurled them through the stargate.

Chariss looked down at her stomach. Her smoking robe discarded long ago, a blackened glowing hole marred her tunic. There was a flash, an impact and another hole smoldered beside it. She hurled her lightsaber and it spun horizontally beheading a trooper taking a slice from the shoulder of another and causing a third to dive to the ground. Another blast rocked her shoulder and she turned as it hit to watch the column of light tunnel into her arm. She didn't see the shot that blasted her knee but she felt herself fall.

Immersed in the force she sought refuge. A voice in the force called out to her, and sshe willed herself to continue. If she could hold for just moments more, the Jedi would arrive and the future would change. Less than a dozen clone troopers remained, climbing over the bodies of their fallen comrades to inspect silent stargate standing ominously nearby. She marshaled her resources, and reached for the strength she needed within the force.

She heard younglings scream and despite herself, she recoiled in shuck from the force. Trapped within herself, she felt her body shutting down.

Chariss felt her senses dimming. She felt pain in her chest and legs. Clone troopers advanced on her position, and she knew it was the end. Suddenly the Stargate erupted, passing over her face leaving three pairs of steaming boots beside her.

"The shield, there's a shield!" A voice shouted and with a start as she faded into darkness, Chariss realized it was the voice of her Master, Iblis.

"It is by my will that you see this Chariss." His voice whispered in her ear, "lest you expire, never knowing the truth. You belong to me, never to yourself, not ever. You are mine."

Overwhelmed by the agony of death, the torment of the force, and consumed by the magnitude of her failure, Chariss could not even scream.

"Sam! Sam! Whats this alarm?" Fred demanded, calling hr back, Sam scrambled back to the cockpit and pulled herself into the seat. A flashing warning had popped up with symbols in English, which Fred could not read. Lacking the ancient gene he was unable to directly interface the computer to translate.

"Oh my god!" She cried, "Its the gate! They've raised the shield on the other end!" She spun from her chair and stumbled back to the back. "Stop! Its not safe! Stop!"

The last of the jedi froze, panicked, and was shot down for his indecision. The last two clone troopers pursuing the jedi fell as bullets and staff fire tore into them from behind and ONeill and Teal'c sprinted from the door followed by Roda. Jack halted at the door at the sight of the tears streaming down Sam's face.

"The shield…" She said, "The other side, they raised a shield…"

All of the sudden Roda stumbled and fell to his knees. Teal'c dropped to one kene beside him.

"What is it?" he asked the young man.

"My Master, I felt her…" Roda choked up a bit.

"I am sorry." Said Teal'c with feeling, "But we must not let her death be in vain." He hauled Roda to his feet.

"Change of plans campers, We can't go back that way now." O'Neill announced from the cockpit.

"Report Major" the shimmering hologram of a shrouded figure spoke with the voice off authority, the weight of a galaxy."

"Sir, this location is now secure." The major reported, "We have taken the civilians into custody with knowledge of this project and are awaiting your representative to take command."

"What of the jedi?" The voice grated suspiciously

"master Camas has escaped." The major reported, "Incurring heavy casualties on my men. We terminated Jedi Chariss, and her Padawan is presumed dead."

"Presumed dead?" the figure asked with irritation.

"Yes Supreme Chancellor." The major bowed, "Master Chariss was confirmed dead however there was a disturbance in the storage facility in where her remains were located. An inspection of the bodies in the surrounding area commencing when an explosive device vaporized a significant portion of the mountain."

"What of the artifacts?"

"We believe the artifacts you are looking for are safe." The major reported, "They were kept in a separate chamber. The area in question was designated "Project Chappa' haven't found any information on what was lost."

"it is of no consequence." The figure stated, "I have dispatched reinforcements who should be landing even now, take command and await my emissary, Colonel."

"Yes Supreme Chancellor."

"..and Colonel, from this day forward you will call me… Emperor."

"Yes, Emperor Palpatine."


	23. Threads

Threads

_Previously…_

A freighter tore out of the landing bay drawing turbo laser fire as skimmed the treeline. Moments later a beetle like shuttle followed it out dangling a ring shaped object. As the guns began to track the smaller shuttle a new shape rose up from the tree line. Hugging the surface of a large river that flowed down the mountain side, the _Athena _sprang up and banked hard crossing the path of the turbolaser fire.

"Tell Jubal to prepare to drop the gate." Starbuck ordered. An alarm blared and Starbuck noted the dangerously low ray shield indicator. He gripped the controls tightly while Armen manned the copilot's seat. Starbuck thumbed the comm.. "Siris, disengage the particle shields and transfer all available power to ray shields."

"I can do better than that." Siris shot back, "The changes to the Tylium drive are giving us more power than I know what to do with, I'm dumping it into the shield projectors in a moment."

Daniel glanced in concern at Cameron as Paul relayed the order.

"Jubal is understandably concerned, but is prepared." Paul relayed pulling the communication's headpiece away from his ear. Daniel made out the sound of creative expletives.

"Um, why are we dropping the gate that Jubal just worked so hard to rescue?" Daniel asked. Through the viewport before him he could see first the gate descend and then the shuttle itself, as the shuttle now flew directly in front of the cockpit. The Athena shuddered as Turbolasers peppered it shields and an alarm sounded.

"Not now Daniel." Paul replied calmly, noting the beaded concentration on Starbuck's face. He toggled a switch, "Jarrol, help Siris with damage control, Raala is in the cargo bay."

"No, I'm just saying, that's our only link to Sam and Jack, I know we couldn't leave it in enemy hands but a fall from this height could damage it…" Daniel objected. Cameron put a hand on his shoulder.

"It will not fall." Paul said as Starbuck entered a final command into his console. Pilot controls were transferred to Armen for a moment and Starbuck suddenly raised his left hand in a gesture of concentration. Before their eyes, the cable fell away from the shuttle, yet the gate remained hanging in mid air, for a moment. Armen's face was a mask of concentration as he worked the controls. Buffeted by wind, and turbo laser fire and racing over the trees the Athena's cargo bay door yawned open and seemingly gobbled the Stargate floating in the sky. The thundering crash below and the reverberating deck plates belied the surreal nature of the maneuver.

"Everything alright down there Raala?" Armen asked tensely as Starbuck took back the controls.

"Just another day at work sweetie." Came the cheerful reply, "Tell Starbuck I'll have this thing upright in a few minutes, but I could use a little help." Daniel and Cameron glanced at each other.

"We'll go." they said in unison.

"Not without me you won't. Starbuck said taking a breathe. "Paul take over, get the particle shields back up and have Jubal dock, then get the planet between us and that mountain."

"What shall we do about those patrol ships?" Paul asked.

"Nothing, " They don't know we can go FTL from atmosphere." Starbuck said.

"We can?" Paul asked, "Is that wise?"

"No." Starbuck said, "But necessary. I'll have to jury rig something. Hopefully it'll work."

"And if it doesn't?" Paul asked

"We'll age about 20 years in a nanosecond, and a bunch of corpses will arrive over Phindar." Starbuck replied.

"Lovely." Paul muttered to himself.

"Well I'll be dammed." Starbuck skidded to a halt at the base of the ramp. The cargo bay was dominated by a Stargate being hoisted up on cables. The ship rattled a bit and the bottom of the gate swung towards him. Daniel and Cameron stood to one side.

"Watch out!" Raala called from the top of the catwalk. "It's not fully secure yet, but its far enough from the walls. When you're friends come through they'll have to lose their ship though, we can't fit both."

"We open the door, they fly out." Starbuck replied, "They fly back in when the gate is off, there's no space for anything else."

"How do we dial?" Daniel asked, "We used the jumper's DHD before."

"Cameron?" Starbuck asked, Cameron pulled a device from his pocket.

"Goa'uld DHD Daniel, I got it from Ba'al when he tried to sink the Stargate on Earth." Cameron answered, "problem is, we have no address."

"Cora, can you get us a gate address?" Starbuck asked seemingly empty space.

"Affirmative." Answered the voice from the intercom. "Calculating drift."

"You downloaded her?' Cameron asked.

"Frak no, but I figured she'd have gotten herself here somehow by now." Starbuck said wryly. "Cora do you know what I need?"

"Affirmative captain." The voice replied.

Cora began calling out symbols and Cameron dutifully entered them in under Starbuck's watchful eye.

"That's it." Cameron called as the ship began to shudder. Starbuck brought his comm to his lips.

"Paul, punch it!" he shouted over the roar as the event horizon erupted from the gate.

"Something's wronooonnnngggggggggg…." Daniel shouted

"Jaaaacccccccck…." Cameron's voice deepened, and Starbuck knew he could do no more.

"Welcome to Atlantis." O'Neill muttered panning his flashlight around the darkened room before him, "population, zero." He spun around as lights suddenly came on. "Woah! Sam will you stop doing that?"

"Sorry Jack, the moment I rerouted power it came on by itself, it must be your ancient gene." Sam replied, rising from behind a control pillar. "That should get the transport tubes working.

"And not a moment too soon!" Jack replied with false enthusiasm. He followed Sam into the small chamber beyond and the doors slid shut as she worked the control. A panel lit up, a diagram of the city with a suspicious number of red dots and a few white ones. He tapped his radio. "Fred, Teal'c report?"

"Still no luck with the gate." Fred reported, "The computer's obviously dead, but we tried three of the other Jumpers and Roda can't find a thing wrong with our own in the first place."

"Roda and I have completed our survey of the vicinity." Teal'c's deep voice reported, "All but the top four levels off the control tower are submerged O'Neill. We believe the doors we could not open are preventing the tower from flooding."

"Well Sam got the transport tube working again." Jack said, "hopefully this elevator will take us to the power room."

"Elevator?" Fred repeated, "Jack, thats not an elevator its…" Suddenly there was a flash.

"..eleporter." the radio crackled. Jack glowered at Sam.

"Sorry Jack." She apologized.

"Did you know what that was?" he demanded irately

"Not exactly." Sam said, "But I suspected."

"Well I don't seem to be missing any pieces…" Jack patted himself down, "But we'd better make sure. Later." He held up a finger to Sam's amused lips, "Later." He stood there for a moment. "So… how does this…" Sam tapped a control on the door and it opened.

Jack flicked the light on his p90 back on and moved cautiously down the hallways. Though lights were coming on, they were even dimmer than in the control room and flickered constantly.

"It's down to emergency lighting here." Sam observed. "but the power room should be right around the corner. If I can figure out what the problem is, I can get it up and running in no time."

Jack could tell she was trying to inject as much confidence into her voice as possible, but chose not to point it out. He glanced back at her tired face, made hallow in the pale light. He peered around the corner and saw a sealed door at the end of a short hall. A mummified corpse was slumped along the wall one of many they had found upon entering the city. There was a subtle hum. Proceeding to the end of the hallway he tapped his radio. "Alright we're at the power room, proceeding inside."

"Acknowledged" Fred replied.

Jack reached out and passed his hands over the door's activation panel, as Sam had just done. Nothing happened. He repeated the gesture and looked back at Sam in exasperation, She stepped forward and passed her hand over it. Then she reached into her vest pocket and pulled out a lifesigns detector. She frowned as she adjusted a setting.

"Jack, I'm getting a massive energy reading from that room." She said, she adjusted the lfiesigns detector, "A lot of interference around us too, I'm not sure I'm using this right."

"You're telling me this now?" Jack said backing away hurriedly.

"Well, nothing registered from the gateroom." Sam said, in fact…" she said, "The power emanating from this chamber only started reading once we were on top of it." She took a few steps backwards and smacked the detector in exasperation. "See? It's only detectable at a range, and there's all these smaller signals moving around us, they must be some kind of interference."

Jack cautiously touched the door, then jerked his hand away.

"It's kind of warm." He commented.

"Uh oh." Sam said, "I have a bad feeling about this, we need to get to the city's control center, I think I know why we can't dial out. " As the two hurried back down the hall, the door cracked ever so slightly, and through the flickering static of a shield, a single metal leg probed cautiously outwards from beyond."

Awareness came slowly. Siris felt her mind picking up and a sense of rudimentary unease gave way to alarm, and then thought. She saw her hand stretched before her frozen. She experienced a moment of terror at the realization that she couldn't feel her body, in fact, she wasn't sure she was breathing.

"you aren't breathing." A warm voice informed her. She saw a shimmering blue just beyond her peripheral vision and a figure stepped into her line of sight. A jedi.

"You fear jedi don't you." He said, "You and your family, you have hunted them for generations."

Siris could do nothing butt listen. She reached out desperately with her sense trying to find feeling once more in her body.

"Very good." The man congratulated her, "You use your senses well. Often we say 'the force is strong in you' yet we overlook that is more than power, it is awareness, a connection with the living." He frowned as she began to form a thought. "Surely you know off your gift in the force?" he cocked his head, "You think that is light you are breathing?"

_Time is still_ She finally formed a thought, _beyond the speed of light._

"Very good." The man congratulated her, "You are seeing through the force my child. You possess a raw aptitude that surpasses many I trained in my life. Oh yes." H said as the thought began to form, "I have passed on into the living force, how else could I have heard tour call these past few years."

_Years_? She thought, _frozen for years!_

"yes." The man confirmed, "As the others on your ship stand motionless, you have somehow expanded your awareness in a manner I have never seen before in a corporeal form. Astounding, if only the Jedi had seen you for what you were when you were younger…"

"Forgive me." He said abruptly, "I can sense the fear that thought causes you. You would have been taken from your family, your life, never seen your brothers… in life I argued frequently that we must not cut our young Jedi from the threads of life into which they were born. It has distanced us, weakened us."

He looked at her, "Your trial is near an end my child. You have come nearly halfway to your destination, clawing for awareness the entire way, I certainly couldn't ignore you as your awareness grew, the solitude would be… " he shook his head. "I know I am not who you would prefer to pass this time with, but I am here, and you are not alone."

"So from what I can tell, a massive amount of energy is being contained within the city's Zero Point Modules." Sam concluded." I didn't even think it was possible to charge them in this way, without causing a total entropy cascade. The city ahs the room sealed up tight and based on the readings I took, Fred and Fola believe there is a force field keeping exotic particles in check."

"it reads like the kind of dampening shield you'd see in use during a hyperspace transit" Fred contributed, "Kind of the reverse actually, we know there are exotic particles kicking round hyperspace that we don't want entering into our space-time continuum, so any ship in hyperspace generates a field to keep them out, in this case the city is containing exotic particles within the power room, bleeding energy off very slowly to keep the shield up."

"Why would someone initiate such a procedure?" Teal'c asked.

"It was likely a last ditch effort to save the city." Sam replied, "According to the back up gate log, a single traveler was enroute, and the safety protocols wouldn't permit the gate to be shut down until he was through. He would have entered the event horizon and during the seconds it took to disassemble his molecules transmit them and reassemble them, the blast wave caught up with him."

"Someone installed a network of droid brains to manage the city." Fred contributed, "The droids must have concluded that there wouldn't be time to let the traveler out, and shut the gate down too, so they devised a method of dumping the excess energy into the vacuum space the ZPM's drew their power from."

"An explosion of that magnitude is probably how the city ended up here in the first place." Fola offered, "From what I can see the city had a stardrive unlike anything I've ever seen before, The energy transmitting through the stargate must have interacted with this process somehow."

"Those exotic particles." Fred put in, "There's no way to predict what they would do, how they would behave. For a droid…" he shrugged. Sam nodded as did Fola. Jack nodded as well, and then suddenly aware of Teal'c's questioning glance, turned and shrugged to indicate he had no idea what that meant.

"The resulting subspace explosion could have blown them across quantum realities, and they may have spent some time outside of our time continuum re-entering at a different point." Sam suggested furrowing her brow, "I wonder if that would create a discernible entry and exit point, or if the effect it transitory…" Her eyes glassed over as the thought engrossed her." Studying one would be fantastic…"

"We're just as lucky the hole was sealed somehow." Fred replied, "You open a hole in your quantum reality, you'd end up getting infinite events colliding with it. We'd have had Ancient cities popping in out of nowhere and stacking up on this planet for years, it'd look like a…" he floundered "messed up parody of Coruscant." He chuckled, "Like, a whole bunch of metal snowflakes smacking into this mudball one by one…" he stopped when he realized everyone was staring at him.

"Does anyone else hear something scuttling around?" he asked changing the subject.

Fola regarded Fred critically.

"That thought just got away from you didn't it." He observed drilly. Fred gave a sheepish nod.

"Look we're all exhausted. " Jack spun irritably in his chair. "What does any of this mean?" he asked plaintively.

"It means someone can dial into the city, but we can't dial out." Sam said, "If we try to access anything but the emergency standby systems, we would release all the energy stored up. Best case scenario it would fling us to an unpredictable location in space and time, worst case it could vaporize the planet we're on."

"And most likely the last of the Jedi." Roda spoke up, "I can sense another presence on this world.

Jack turned, and torn between a need to vent frustration through caustic reply, and empathy for what the young Jedi must be feeling, settled for, "Lets.. let's just put a pin in that shall we Roda? We'll try to find your friend if we can, but we've got to figure out what to do about Daniel and Cameron."

Fred cleared his throat, "Jack, I'm really not sure there's anything we can do. Even if we could dial the gate, there are probably clone troopers crawling all over it."

"So what?" Jack answered sitting back gesticulating wildly in frustration, "We send a droid through and scout it out, follow it up with a cloaked jumper if it looks safe. Better than being stuck here on planet… mudball…"

"maybe if we study the problem a little longer something will come up." Fred suggested, "Some of this equipment is actually pretty familiar, there may be something we can use."

"In the mean time, could not Roda and I search for this acquaintance?" Teal'c asked.

"Fine, take the time jumper, since you don't have to be an ancient to operate it." Jack said, "But you have him home by seven, you hear?" he stabbed a finger at Tea;'c who merely raised an eyebrow. The two rose and left the room.

"Teal'c's really looking out for him." Sam commented to Jack.

"Well the two have really bonded." Fred observed, "and why not, you two have each other, and Fola and I have…" he looked at the Toydarian, "Our work…"

"Fola just lost everyone he knows." Jack said,

"We all have." Sam sighed, "I'll never see my brother again, he doesn't exist, our whole reality was… rewritten." Jack put a comforting hand around her shoulder.

"hey," he said, drawing her attention, "You've got me, we've got each other. Now come on, lets outta this mess." She returned his encouraging smile. Together they stood up and headed for the gateroom.

"I did hear something scuttling around." Fola said into the silence, "Sounded like a big tasty spider."

"I hate spiders." Fred grumbled.

"At least we have our work." Fola said sardonically, "When this is over I'd better be so kriffing rich…"

"I just hope we get back before Starbuck breaks the ship." Fred grumbled.

"Ah. You sense the dials before you." The jedi observed, "Very good, you continue to broaden your perceptions."

_Anything to take my mind off your incessant babbling_. Siris thought. For what seemed like days, her visitor had communicated with her. Varying at times from discussion of her experience, to observations about her psyche, he seemed able to read the thoughts she had been increasingly able to form. She had the notion she would feel helpless and alone, were she able.

"That will come, young one." The Jedi before her warned. " You are echoes of a mind learning to operate under conditions it has never experienced. Memories of this experience will come crashing down upon you in a wave, assuming you survive. Your thoughts are patterned by your life, and in life there is emotion."

_You have said this Jedi_. She thought

"it is important that you understand the reverse is true." The jedi responded, "Frozen here in this moment, your thoughts will bring out those emotions, and you may not understand what is happening to you. You will be vulnerable Siris, but it will pass. Remember, it will pass." His eyes glazed over,. "it may even lend you keen insight, into the experiences of others."

_What is this danger I sense?_ Siris thought, _it grows._

_ "_it is your connection to your body Siris, but the danger will have passed as you become aware of it. You are sensing a dial that will report a power fault in this ships FTL protection systems. Starbuck's ingenious solution to a problem."

_If the FTLPS failed, time wouldn't have stopped, it would have accelerated._ Siris thought.

"Starbuck used the Stargate in your hanger to connect with a black hole." The Jedi explained. "This nearly blew out your antigravity field as well. Time warped briefly around the Stargate. It provided the semblance of a relativistic counterpoint to the Tylium drive."

_The Semblance?_

"There are far too many variables for Starbuck to have succeeded in his effort." The Jedi stated, "But it allowed another to intervene."

_You?_

"Not I, I am prevented from intervention. My spark has been extinguished, I am one with the force now."

The danger grows.

"Time is returning, it will come quickly and you must brace yourself. The shock of your returning senses will be most unpleasant. You have several years of feelings to feel." The jedi looked at her with sympathy. "But it will pass. When it does, you will emerge as something.. new."

Emotions began to flood through her mind. She felt agonizing pain, and it nearly overwhelmed her, until she realized, it was not pain, it was feeling. She felt a massive pressure building in her chest, and it seemed to build endlessly and then release.

"A heartbeat." The jedi observed as he began to fade, "you are returning to life."

As emotions whirled into her mind she found the presence of mind to form one final thought.

_Who are you?_

The man smiled, "A friend Siris. When you tell Starbuck of this, tell him..."

"..my name is Kyle Katarn." Starbuck murmured.

"What the hell just happened?" Daniel asked incredulous, "Did we… did you…"

"I dialed a blackhole." Starbuck confirmed composing hismelf, "Time slowed down, but only for a moment."

"Only.." Daniel was completely baffled Cameron stepped in.

"Why would you do that." Mitchell asked trying to maintain his calm. "What about Jack and the others?"

"I'm sorry Daniel, Cameron, there was nothing we could do for them." Starbuck said "Even with the enhanced shielding we were this close to being shot out of the sky, the Tylium drive was our only way out."

"So? What does that have to do with this?" Daniel gestured furiously to the Stargate. Then he paused and cocked his head. "The shooting stopped."

"Starbuck, it worked." Paul's voice was relieved, "We are on the outskirts of the phindar system.

"What worked? What happened?' Daniel demanded, "What about trying to dial Atlantis?"

"Damage report?" Starbuck asked hopefully.

"Tylium drive shows nominal, but it has been taken offline. Cora reports there was a power fault during our reversion. We sustained minor structural damage and the shields are overloaded. " There was some muffled shouting which echoed through the halls. "It seems Siris is unconscious, I must attend to her."

"What about Jack and the others?" Daniel repeated. "We have to dial Atlantis."

"That wasn't going to work." Starbuck answered calmly his voice was distant and he put a hand to his ehad, "We'd have had to stay on Tantiss for too long to dial them, have them dial us back, come through the gate, get their ship back aboard…"

"They could have ditched the jumper!" Daniel exploded, "What did you do?"

"The adjustments to the Tylium drive." Raala commented from her position above on the catwalk, "We knew the dampening field wouldn't protect us from all of the relativistic effects of the Tylium drive, somehow the stargate compensated."

"Sanyassa Astria porta." Starbuck said, "The address Cora gave me. We connected to a supergate that is circling the event horizon of a black hole, but only for a few microseconds. The instability of the connection caused its immediate shutdown, relatively speaking."

"How relatively?" Cameron asked, concerned.

"19.4 years." Cora supplied helpfully.

"You abandoned Jack and the others." Daniel accused

"I saved my crew, and my ship." Starbuck said shortly as the entered the cockpit, "and you. If you don't like it you can find your own." He pulled up abruptly at the sight beyond the cockpit window."

The battlestar _Pegasus_ hung before them. Cameron had glimpsed her briefly in the murky darkness of Earth's oort cloud as they worked to awaken her from her slumber. He had seen her again surrounded by the scaffolding in the shipyards with trade federation droids crawling all over her, repairing damage and probing for secrets. Now he beheld her majesty, as the massive battlestar prowled space before them. Armor gleamed, plated over much of her frame. Cameron spotted a bank of eight turbolasers installed on her dorsal surface, and pairs on each of the flight pods. He saw quad lasers dotting the sides and bottoms as the ship turned beneath them. The Athena was caught in a lazy spiral as a tractor beam led them towards the yawning cavern of Alpha landing bay.

Cameron hadn't missed a beat, he broke into Starbuck's reverie by pointing at the ship. "Fine." He said, "We'll take that one."

Speeding through the fog, Teal'c was grateful as the Jumper's heads up display outlined the terrain before them

"There seems to be an energy field that interferes with the Republic technology Fola installed." He commented into the silence.

"Atmospheric ionization I would guess." Roda replied with a catch in his voice.

"Indeed." Teal'c replied.

The silence crept as they continued flying.

"It will be some time before we arrive at our destination." Tea;'c observed.

"Fourteen minutes, 21 seconds." Roda replied, "Whatever those are. It's translating to O'Neill's standard off measurement."

"Roda if you wish to talk…" Teal'c persisted.

"We've been over it Teal'c. I don't know that talking will change anything." Roda replied, "At the very least I will need time." His tone softened, "but I am nervous."

"About what," Teal'c said casting him a glance.

"Well, Yoda is the Grandmaster of the Jedi." Roda said, "For all I know the last, and I have to tell him I was there at the temple and couldn't save anyone." He sighed heavily, "not even my own master."

"You are young Roda." Teal'c replied, "Too young to ebar such a burden willingly. None of us could see what Chariss had become, but in the end, I believe she did find redemption."

"We don't know that." Roda argued, "For all we know she betrayed us and turned the shield on herself."

Teal'c regarded him.

"You do not believe that." He replied.

"No." said Roda, shifting in his seat and fiddling with a control panel installed by Fola, "She was confused at a terrible time, but I think she found herself in the end. It is my anger Teal'c, my anger poisons my thoughts. It is a cloud over everything."

"There is darkness within us all." Teal'c acknowledged, "We must not let it prevail."

"Eyes up everyone, we don't know what kind of reception we're gonna get here. " Cameron warned. "They didn't seem to interested in answering our hails

"And yet we go anyway." Said Daniel resigned. A familiar sight greeted them at the bottom off the ramp, not necessarily a welcome one.

"Welcome aboard." Todd greeted them as Daniel Starbuck and Cameron descended the Athena's ramp. All were armed. "Oh. Now," Todd noting the guns that rose to meet him " are those necessary?"

"Probably." Cameron replied, "Cora, are you there, you still in control of this heap?"

"Though there is a significant crew present, I retain control of all command functions, life support, and a considerable droid support staff. " The smooth voice replied, "It is good to see you again, Colonel Mitchell."

"I just saw you in the ship.' Cameron said with a glance back at the _Athena_.

"I apologize, my attempts to access the _Athena'_s logs are proving unsuccessful. From my perspective it has been nearly twenty years. My initial refit has been completed, as well as two others. " Cora replied, "Is it still your intention to return to Earth?"

"Er… yes." Cameron answered.

"As my standing imperative I will facilitate a command transfer that will enable this." Cora said

"You see Colonel?" Todd spoke up, "There is nothing to be alarmed about. Tell me, where are Colonel O'Neil, Doctor Carter and what was his name… Teal'c?"

"We have no idea." Daniel replied, "Unless they waited twenty years in the same spot thanks to Starbuck." He tossed the last at Starbuck who stood taking in the bay around them. He spotted one of the viper's in the corner and strode towards it, a whimsical half smile on his face.

"Relax. Jackson, he told us he had a plan." Cameron said with some exasperation in his voice, "Cora can predict a solar flare in any of the nearby stars, and _move _us to where we need to be. Voila, instant time travel."

"Yeah except the_ Athena's_ hyperdrive was busted when he thought of it." Daniel glared at the man doing his best to ignore him. "And he hasn't offered to be particularly helpful in carrying out the plan."

"We have repair facilities onboard that can repair your ship." Todd disclosed, "And I have some experience with star gates, I believe I may be of some assistance."

"it seems your arrival was uh.. " Starbuck searched for the right word "fortuitous."

"yes…" Todd's voice trailed off as understanding reached him, "you mean you haven't told them?"

"Told us what." Daniel asked sharply. "What do you know Todd? What are you hiding?"

"Well, " Todd said reprovingly, "I've had twenty years longer to figure some things out Doctor Jackson, the answer to your questions, why is this ship here, why am I here, how could I have known where you'd be… well… I suppose you could say an ancient told me."

"Fola, did you see that hanger bay full of ships?"Fred said coming down the stairs from the jumper bay. Fola had restored some of the emergency lights in the control room, and the lights from another Jumper illuminated the gateroom below courtesy of Jack.

"They were all wrecks." Fola replied, disinterested, he snorted as the astromech he was tinkering with gave a long beep and powered down.

"What are you working on?" Fred asked, sensing the Toydarian's irritation.

"I've tried all the Astromech's I could find around here. All of them are fried, its almost like an old style EMP went off, but Astromech's should be shielded against anything like that. Some sort of exotic radiation flooded this place at one point and blew all the processors. Probably affected all those ships in the bay too."

"Twelve of those ships up there had hyperdrives, none of them working." Fred confirmed. "Whatever this place has been through we're lucky the Lantean systems are online because the Republic stuff sure as hell isn't."

"If we weren't trapped in the Wookiee's end of nowhere on a sinking derelict I'd be excited at this discovery. " Fola said, "I could make ion cannons obsolete if I could figure out how to reproduce it."

"This city has some deep secrets." Fred acknowledged.

"Well according to this, there isn't much left that isn't flooded, crushed or radioactive, beyond the main tower." Fola said "What a shame, this city must have been glorious in its day."

"Well Sam told me there's another one just like it out there." Fred said, "If we can get off this rock and bring that thing with us…" he gestured at the gate, "maybe we can go there some day. See the real deal."

"Where are those two? In the jumper bay?' Roda asked, firedly. His wings moved and he began to hover in agitation. "Doctor Carter is very bright, and she is more familiar with ancient technology than I…"

"I don't know about that buddy." Fred replied, "She's only worked with the jumper near as I can tell, and her people weren't anywhere near as advanced as ours. She's putting on a show for the colonel but behind those eyes, she's racing to keep up. You've taken a ship of theirs apart and put it back together, if anyone can get this all working again its you."

"Well at the moment, I am stumped, despite your apparent confidence." Fola grumbled settling back to his chair behind the console., "There are references to the city's long range communications, but it seems to have been replaced for the most, with a more conventional system, and Hypercom's seem just as disabled as the hypderives you found."

"I didn't think to check if those fighters had working comms, but the probably don't." Fred said, "I saw an income sticker on a couple of them but is a design I've never seen. I found a few decrepid avionics systems that looked like Subpro's handiwork but were more advanced than anything I've worked with."

"Anything by Subpro is second rate compared to CEC…" Fola began his curiosity piqued.

"Hey," Fred said, putting up his hands, "you're preaching to the choir, I'm saying whatever outfit was running this place, they were short on options, there's a couple ships that look like the new BTL-B's? These are a variant I've never even seen before. One seat, hyperdrive, backup hyperdrive and nav computer. It's kitted out for long range recon work. "

"Well, they said this city was from an alternate reality, what do you want from me?" Fola asked irritably.

" I'm just sayin is all." Fred said swiping debris off a seat next to Fola and plopping down. he put his feet up on the console. "I think they're from the future too."

"I'll keep an eye out for the winning numbers to the Alderaanian lottery." Fola replied, turning back to his work. "At this rate its my only hope for getting paid."

"Cora" Mitchell guessed.

"Cameron, please…." Todd said, wounded, "Lets not name names here, Cora is your artificial intelligence program, she's been with you the entire time."

"It makes sense, she's been feeding us information she couldn't possibly have, she's turning up in places she couldn't possibly be, but why the act?" Cameron said as Armen, Jarrol and Siris joined them.

"Well if she was an ancient, she may not be able to help overtly, or there may be rules." Daniel said letting out a breath. "Anubis for example was limited to using knowledge he could obtain prior to his ascension."

"That's right, and Adria was the Ori's cheat code.' Cameron snapped his fingers, "They impregnated my friend with a daughter who grew in a matter of days, evolved to the point where she could ascend at will but chose not to, and full of all the knowledge of the Ori."

"What does any of this have to do with whether we can trust him?" Armen asked, "Didn't we leave you on Dantooine?"

"He was on Wayland." Jubal supplied sauntering down the ramp. "he and Ba'al tried to use jack to dial the gate for them from the Jumper, they had a falling out."

"If you recall, I harmed no one, and it was Ba'al who had an agenda." Todd replied smoothly, "For which I exacted punishment." He flexed his right hand for emphasis. "Not only did I give Colonel O'Neill the address for Coruscant, I gave him the address for Dagobah which likely saved his life. I also provided a program that kept the Stargate out of Imperial hands which, after the past twenty years, I think we can all agree was a good thing." He looked around at the mostly blank faces. "Well, perhaps not." He amended. "You have all been somewhat out of…" he searched for the right word, "Circulation."

"I trust him." Starbucks aid, "My memories are coming back and with them some abilities I forgot I ever had. I can sense him through the force and he's telling the truth. What's more, he brought you _Pegasus_. He's the help you need Jackson. It's all right here." Starbuck gestured to the landing bay.

"Wonderful!" Daniel snapped, "_you _trust him."

"Daniel!" Cameron broke in exasperated, "Relax"

"Sure, relax." Daniel shouted throwing up his hands, "Relax, surrounded by four bounty hunters who tried to kill me, and their former captain have assured me that a being that spent the first ten thousand years of its life feeding on the life essence of humans is..trustworthy. He's 'seen the light', because an ancient showed him the way, an ancient who by the way has been masquerading as a computer."

"Feels good to be back in it doesn't it." Cameron deadpanned.

"This isn't a game Mitchell!" Daniel exploded, "We just left jack Teal'c and sam in the past in the middle of of a holocaust!"

Leaving the two to themselves, Todd retreated to Starbuck who stood leaning on the Viper. Paul joined them. Daniel's voice receded in the distance as he crossed the long stretch off the landing bay.

"I know this ship." Starbuck said, "This landing bay, this viper… a long…long time ago…" his eyes lost their focus. "The living legend, Commander Cain himself, commanded this ship. The battlestar Pegasus."

"Certainly, a one of a kind." Paul remarked.

"No, " Starbuck answered, "There were… there were twelve battlestars once… the… _Atlantia,_ the _Pacifica_.. the… Triton…" he trailed off and putt a hand to his head. " the _Galactica_… she was the last…"

Paul and Todd exchanged a confused glance.

"That seems unlikely." Todd replied drolly. "As we are standing on one now."

"We haven't seeded the Drakon yet." Starbuck said.

"I beg your pardon?" Paul said confused.

"The Astria Porta." Starbuck tried again, "To Lemuria from Atlantis, the Red Sash archives said…" He gasped.

Starbuck convulsed and Paul stepped forward, "Starbuck, what is happening?"

"Hundreds of lifetimes, millennia of memory…it doesn't fit…"

"He is not well." Todd observed, "We must get him to the life Center."

"This isn't my body." Starbuck mumbled, "That's why, I'm… I can't be.." he lurched forward suddenly, and Paul caught him. Daniel and Cameron hurried over.

"What happened?" Cameron demanded.

"He began to speak nonsense, and passed out." Todd replied.

"He spoke of memories returning." Paul said, "I know he has been recalling more and more…" he put a hand to Starbuck's forehead, "He is running a fever, and his pulse is elevated.

"I've seen this." Daniel said, "Colonel O'Neill, once had the memory of the ancients downloaded into his mind, its… too much."

"Orlin too." Cameron muttered grimly, "He was an ancient who ascended." He replied to Jackson's questioning gaze.

'Yes I met him." Daniels aid pointedly, "he ascended again."

"Right well the second time, he took the form of a child to retain more of his ancient knowledge, to help us fight the deliberately repressed his knowledge for days. " Cameron replied, "But it was too much and became a vegetable."

"We must get him to medical facilities immediately." Paul declared, "I have some equipment on Athena, but not much,"

"The life center." Todd reasserted. He pulled a comlink out, "There is a medical emergency in the alpha landing bay, send med techs."

"What…" Daniel pulled back as Starbuck suddenly lurched up at him. Grasping either side of his head, Starbuck stared deep into Daniel's eyes, Daniel screamed, in agony and fell back twitching, caught by Cameron. Starbuck did the same supported by Paul.

Todd raised the comlink once more.

"Make that two medical emergencies." He amended.

Deep in the bowels off Atlantis a figure stood. Upon one screen he observed Fred and Fola at work in the control center. He glanced at another, that showed Sam reaching deep into the guts of a Jumper while jack sat nearby playing with a yo yo. A third screen showed a number of mechanical spiders clambering over number of crates, breaking them apart for raw materials. He nodded at a queen spider beside him obediently churning out new spiders.

"Pitty there wasn't more neutronium in this city." He sighed, "The trace amounts from the hull of those craft was barely adequate. " he absently stroked the side of his head in thought, revealing it to be composed of the remains of a protocol droid. A single optical orb glowed and a rudimentary nose slit merged with flesh that resembled that of a human. "I should like some company, indeed my children, but for now, let us continue to make repairs. For this vessel will bear us to the stars. We will travel to this Coruscant, and there find all the raw materials we could need."


	24. Threads part 2

Threads Part 2

"Where am I?" asked Daniel looking up and blinking owlishly. He had found himself in a dry desert standing on stone steps. Something about the shape of the dunes seemed familiar and he turned around and beheld a colossal pyramid looming overhead. The wind blew sand softly and the sun beat down, and Daniel was absolutely convinced that what he experienced was real.

Until a very familiar figure blinked into existence beside him.

"A refuge." The figure said, "From a storm of knowledge."

"Oma!" he exclaimed amazed, moving by instinct he wrapped her in a bear hug, "I thought I would never see you again!"

Oma returned the embrace awkwardly and then pushed Daniel away.

"The road without end often meets itself in the middle." She answered. Daniel paused for a moment, and then nodded in understanding.

"The time drive." He surmised, "it brought us back before you battled Anubis."

"Very astute Daniel Jackson." Replied Oma, "Indeed, you have travelled back before I am to take Anubis as a student. Fear not." She added at his appalled look, "I have the ability to withhold from myself, the memory of this encounter, and the others will help me to shield the memories of you and your friends from those who would seek to use such information to their own ends. We will ensure that your timeline is preserved."

"No, no, no!" objected Daniel, "By all means, use what you know! Anubis is responsible for the deaths of billions! I would gladly sacrifice my existence to change that." He paused, "In fact that is pretty much what has brought me here." He sighed.

"The sacrifice you made did not end your existence, "observed Oma, "Merely its purpose."

"Yup, now I'm an extra." Sighed Daniel. "All that I knew and loved is gone. What's more, even if I found my way back to the SGC I wouldn't belong, it wouldn't be 'my' SGC or 'my Earth'."

"You are a forgotten piece in a cosmic game Daniel." Said Oma, "Though I know it is small comfort, you still have a role to play and a place you belong. You are."

"'I am?'" repeated Daniel confused,

"yes."Answered Oma. "And no one else can be."

Daniel blinked.

"I'm sorry, I'll just file that away under things that should make sense but don't." he replid testily, "You didn't bring me here to talk about my life as a temporal anomaly did you? You mentioned a cosmic game. What am I this time to you a rook or a pawn?"

"You are a knight." Answered Oma, "But it is not I who play the game Daniel Jackson, it is the colonials, they play against an entity known as Iblis. It was iblis who created you as a mere side effect, yet the colonials who sustained you after Iblis meant to discard you."

"How was I to have been discarded?" asked Daniel, "And how do you know so much about the future?"

"I see the truth in your mind Daniel." Explained Oma, " I value truth above all else, for it is with truth that may come choice, with choice, may come freedom. Iblis would subvert truth and thus influence choice, and subvert freedom. Iblis created the manuscript that led your team back to Egypt. This altered the timeline and caused the Stargate to close at an inopportune time for the enemies of Iblis, he split their forces so that he could conquer them one by one. Additionally, he orchestrated events so that they would unfold around him, rather than without him. Had you not gone back in time Daniel Jackson, Iblis would have been defeated millennia before you were born. As it stands he may yet be victorious."

"Well after we went back and changed history, we put it back." Objected Daniel, "Didn't we? Cameron said the timeline was restored."

" The team sent back to restore it, was sent by Starbuck." Clarified Oma, "One of the Colonials stranded in your galaxy. It was he who persuaded jack O'Neill to answer the call once more. Had they not come back, Apophis would have taken your world, and Ra would in turn have taken it from him, knowing full well the treasures that it held. Iblis would again be unleashed, having consolidated his power elsewhere and would move his campaign onwards."

"Why are the colonials doing all of the work?" demanded Daniel, "Why haven't you intervened?"

"You know why Daniel." Answered Oma sadly, "It is against our highest law to interfere in the lesser planes of existence."

"Yet you let the Colonials." Replied Daniel, "Cameron spoke of an ascended Colonial who spoke to him, _ascended_ Oma, ascended."

"The colonials ascended with our help." Answered Oma peering at Daniel, "Yet I perceive that they will choose a different path than us. This is unfortunate." Stated Oma sadly, "For a battle must always end in favor of iblis. He thrives on pain and suffering, his goal is the subversion of will. The colonials do not see that in fighting a war, even of ideologies, they open the doorway to chaos, the very forces Iblis would unleash."

"You can't leave the house without opening the door." Answered Daniel defiantly, "Your people must learn someday that Ascension does not shelter them from the hardships of the "lower planes", The Tolan refused to aid us in our war with the Goa'uld and war came to them anyway. Had we been working together, we could have saved them, instead they buried their heads in the sand until it was too late."

"I regret that your words may not find purchase Daniel." Replied Olma, "I must shield this conversation even from myself. I was sent only to ascertain the purpose of your arrival. Events must play themselves out and you must be returned to your own time."

"What if we choose not to return?" Demanded Daniel defiantly. "That's what it's all about with your kind isn't it? Free choice? Palpatine is evil, the Jedi were murdered, and we are in a unique position to help these people. We could return to earth early, with all this technology and Earth could build a fleet!" he paused, "We could _be_ SG-1, lead Earth's advance teams through the Stargate using our knowledge off the future." Suddenly Daniel could see his way back, to the life he missed so much and the friends he had lost so long ago."What if we choose to thwart your will? _Ruin_ your precious timeline, and tear down your precious rules."

"The river tells no lies, yet the dishonest man, waiting at its shore hears them." She answered after a moment.

"Each akin to our nature." Daniel answered sourly, "We don't _really_ have a choice here do we. If we want to stay here and make a difference you'll simply ensure that what we want is to do what you want." He shook his head disgusted. "That's not freedom Oma, its manipulation."

Oma looked at him sadly, but Daniel sighed.

"I know that isn't true." He said after a moment, "The only way we would freely choose to return to a present in which we don't belong is if something or someone_ there_ needs us much more than anything we could here. " he sighed. "The universe is so vast, and we are so small."

Oma nodded.

"but you have a place, Daniel Jackson, you belong where you are, when you are." She assured him, "You will be where you are because you can be nowhere else. Take heart"

"I don't suppose you're going to just tell me what you want me to do next." Daniel hazarded.

"Apotheosis was the beginning before the beginning." Oma said, "Yet without meaning the journey serves no purpose. You must find your purpose once more Daniel, or those with none will consume you. "

"I've been down that road, and as a matter of fact you stopped me. Will stop me. Whatever." Daniel said, "I can't go back to that."

There was a clap of thunder overhead and suddenly Daniel felt the world spinning around him.

"The streams feed the oceans and the oceans feed the streams." Oma said urgently. "You must find yourself Daniel, or all that has happened before, will not happen again."

"jack there's definitely some activity going on in the lower levels, we just have no way to tell what's going on." Fred insisted.

"What do you want from me?" jack demanded, "We tried taking a Jumper, the mdus too thick, the transporters down there are either offline or its unsafe. If something is going on there's nothing we can do about it."

"Fola saw…"

"That was days ago." Jack interrupted, "and we don't know what he saw, he said it was probably some kind of droid."

"I said it looked like a droid." Fola corrected, "though I've never seen a model like that. More to the point it didn't show up when I pointed the scanner right at it. All I got were some vague energy anomalies, that vanished."

"They did resemble the readings I got from the core room." Sam admitted, "But when we went back down there was nothing there. The door was shut, the field was on."

"We still haven't gotten the city's computer's online." Fred argued, "At this point I have the feeling something is intentionally preventing us from doing so."

"Aw for crying out loud, just look at this place." Jack reached down and scooped a pile of debris from beside his chair. After over a week they still hadn't had time to clean out even the conference room, though out of sheer boredom jack had swept most of the debris in the gateroom into a corner, and had made efforts at restoring the lighting. His efforts ceased when he had inadvertently shocked himself unconscious and Sam had explained he probably wasn't qualified to handle even the cities basic systems. "no ones blaming you guys, its all a pile of junk."

"Junk can be fixed." Fred said resolutely, "I've reconditioned far worse back into service, Fola's a very good engineer as is Sam, yet everything we've tried has failed, every idea that _should_ work hasn't."

"What so its gremlins?" jack demanded, "You want me to call Teal'c And Roda back so he can use his force powers to scare them off?"

"Well have you heard from them?" Fred asked, "How long do they plan on staying with this Yoda guy?"

Siris awoke. She felt a mask on her face, she clawed it off. She felt Armen's hand on her shoulder as she struggled to sit up. She saw an observation window before her and the worried faces of Raala, Jarrol, and to her surprise Cameron peering back at her.

"She's awake!" he called, and Siris saw that Starbuck lay beside her and Daniel one bed beyond. Her spirits fell ffor a moment as she realized that Daniel was most likely why Cameron was here.

"That is fortunate." Paul said from beside Daniel, "But my attention must be here. "

"Detecting abnormal activity in amygdale and hippocampus regions." An attentive medical droid reported.

"yes I know, maintain full life support for both." Paul said scanning the readings intently, "It seems the activity in those portions of their brains is overriding control of their autonomic functions." He hurried over to Siris. "My dear, can you ehar me?"

"Yes." Siris said. She shook her head, and seemed dazed. "I can't concentrate, just so much…"

"You appear to have somehow begun processing memories at an accelerated rate." Paul explained perplexed. "We found you unconscious in the engine room. Starbuck suffered a smilair fate and he passed it on to Daniel, but for the life of me I can't find a method of contagion…"

"I was…awake." Siris said struggling to explain, "Or I… learned to be… aware as we travelled, there was a man, a Jedi I think…"

"While we travelled?" Armen asked confused. "From Tantiss? It was only a moment."

"Hey! Doctor!" Cameron was rapping on the observation window insistently, "Maybe the blackhole somehow triggered repressed memories from when they were ascended."

"Siris has never ascended you idiot." Jarrol stated.

"No, but he's onto something." Paul considered, "Siris you posess a very high midichlorian count, do you not?"

"mine is higher, and I didn't experience anything like what she said." Armen objected.

"Yes but, her brain is different in subtle ways." Paul tapped the display above her and slid his finger to a minimized graphic. A brain scan leaped up. "I recall reflecting upon it once. She is able to more easily concentrate midichlorians within her anterior nuclei.." he trailed off and stopped, "none of this explains how this condition transmitted from her to Starbuck, to Daniel."

"Well however they got it, won't they just wake up like she did?" Cameron asked. Paul gave an exasperated glance at the observation window.

"Unlikely." He replied, "I do not see signs of improvement in either Daniel, or Starbuck, their condition progresses much faster as well. Their brains are writing information at an alarming rate, Starbuck's especially. Neither of their brains have the unique features that Sirius seems to benefit from, my dear," he turned to Sirius, "I cannot be certain, but I believe the very feature that permitted your awareness is what permitted you to retain a degree of awareness as you underwent a process of memory reintegration." He pulled up another graphic. "We monitored your brain activity and you seemed better able to regulate the emotions and the impulses, yet still, the very structure of your brain was altered by that experience. Starbuck and Daniel, are not effectively regulating what is happening, their brains are not ordering the knowledge they seem to be unlocking." His brow furrowed in concentration. "I do not understand why. If they both ascended once, one would assume they would have the capacity to do so again."

"I don't know about Starbuck." Cameron said rapping on the window once more, to Paul's extreme irritation, "But Daniel didn't ascend on his own, he was helped by another ancient."

"As Starbuck must have been." Paul reasoned, "We must determine how that process works, we must find a catalyst. Forgive me, I must think without interruption." He began to move away.

"Wait." Sirius said grabbing at his arm, "The Jedi, he said, I would have insight, emotion and thought, thought and emotion…" She blinked trying to remember, "Does that mean anything ?"

Paul looked askance. "My dear I have no idea what that could mean. The process Daniel and Starbuck are experiencing activates many areas of their brains, Memories are being written and their brain is working to associate those memories, incorporate them into…" he paused suddenly and blinked, "The chemicals their brains are releasing are an emotional response to the memories they are experiencing…"

"Daniel used to say that Oma brought him to a state of peace before he ascended." Cameron interjected, "Maybe that's what Starbuck and Cameron need, to be at peace."

"I see no way to accomplish this." Paul replied, "perhaps with detailed study we could determine exactly how their brains behave, what chemicals they produce, and in time we could devise a therapy to counter this, but we haven't the time. Their brains are responding too quickly, the damage is happening too fast. There must have been some way for the ancients to regulate this activity, some kind of technology…"

"They could heal themselves." Camerons aid, "Fast, regenerate injuries, fight off illnesses…"

"I cannot think with that man carrying on." Paul said in frustration and jarrol clamped a hand around Cameron's arm.

"Wait, let him help." Sirius cried, "He knows more about this than any of us, he's our only help." Where this realization came precisely she could not say but she felt its veracity deeply.

"The Goa'uld have sarcophagi… the ancient healing device… we could go to Dagobah…"

"That would take too long." Paul insisted, "These men have hours. I don't think even bactqa treatment would…"

"The Nox!" Cameron snapped his finger, "I read a mission report once. They could ehal too, only.. not by themselves, but as a group, a sort of group chanting ritual."

"Oh for heaven's sake." Paul protested to any who would listen. "The man is proposing witchcraft! Why don't we simply get on our knees and pray?"

"no, he's right." Said Armen slowly, "The Jedi could do it… they could join one another in a healing trance…"

"There are no Jedi!" Paul objected, "We only know off a single padawan and he is days from here. We have no time to find any others."

"No, but we have time to try to figure out what they knew to do." Armen said, determined, "I am strong in the force, so is Sirius, we could give this a try."

"I cannot allow it, there is a danger here you are overlooking." Paul objected," When Starbuck touched Daniel, he somehow precipitated the spread of his condition. This is all the purest form of insanity, As you have no real hope of success, I simply cannot allow you to take the risk. You two have no experience with this sort of thing."

"As a matter of fact." Said a new voice, Todd stood forgotten to one side, "I may have some expertise in this manner. Both my unique connection to the force, and the exchange of energy integral to how a wraith feeds…"

"This is utter nonsense." Paul stated flatly,

"Doc, no offense." Said Cameron irritably, "But have you got a better idea?"

Paul simmered for a moment, he set his jaw and turned.

"I will have no part in this insanity." He stated at last.

"Fine whatever." Cameron said, "Todd get in there and do your thing, you avhe any idea what you are doing here?"

"Only a fair approximation." Todd admitted. "We will have to simply do our best here."

"Great, business as usual. " Cameron grumbled.

"Fear in you, I do not sense." Yoda marveled, "A rarity this is, Yet your doubts run deep my friend. Pain, Sorrow, injustice, righteousness…" he closed his eyes, "Hold much within you do. Tightly wound, a knot within you and at the center of it…"

"Anger." Teal'c whispered, he sat cross legged in a triangle with Yoda and Roda, "Hatred."

"But Master there is something deeper." Roday pointed out, his eyes closed. The three sat cross legged but both Roda and Yoda hovered off the ground. A multitude of rocks floated in the air around them spinning slowly in an intricate dance. "At the core of his righteousness, there is a reflection of vengeance, and beyond it…"

"Justice." Teal'c rumbled.

"yes…" Yoda agreed, "yes… powerful this need is… noble…" he settled to the ground and Roda followed suit. He opened his eyes as the stones above began to sink to the ground. "Complexities there are, within simplicities, yet simplicities within complexities. A paradox this may appear."

"it is the juxtaposition of forces." Teal'c observed, "The conflict that drives us all."

"Driven we can be or lead we may be." Yoda pointed out. "Such drive is exhausting, such conflict is destructive, freely walk the path we must, if to endure it we are."

"We must protect that which we hold most dearly." Teal'c commented.

"From whom do we protect such things." Yoda asked, "Others, or ourselves." Teal'c nodded in understanding and bowed his head in respect. Roda still pondered.

"Close your eyes." Said Todd, "Clear your minds." He stood between Daniel and Starbuck, Armen and Siruis sat on the bed on the other side. "Before we can find them, we must find one another."

"They better be right about Starbuck being the guinea pig." Sirius heard Cameron mutter to Raala, "Because if he isn't the source of Daniel's Coma, there might not be time for a second shot at this."

"We will need silence please." Said Paul icily. He had agreed at last under protest to monitor the vitals of the participants. He stood ready flanked by a pair of medical droids.

Sirius found them first, she identified first her brother's familiar presence, and then the murky presence of the wraith. Armen reached out with her guidance, and they felt an uncomfortable sensation as his mind joined with theirs. Sirius had the impression of a dry, gravelly surface, and as she searched deeper, a deep, yawning abyss within, a hunger…

Todd carefully redirected her probe elsewhere, and she searched for Starbuck. Aware of his position in the space before her, she quickly found his tormented mind yet again, needed Armen to initiate the contact. Now, backed by Todd's steadfast, uncluttered foundation, they pressed at the gates of his soul. They were met by a presence familiar to Sirius.

"We meet again, little lady." The charming voice echoed in her mind. "your actions are courageous, your intentions most noble."

_Who are you?_ Demanded Armen.

"I was a Jedi, now I am an echo." Replied the man, "I was called Kyle Katarn, and I gave myself to the force, and the shell of who I was, that Starbuck might live."

_Can you help us? Can you help him_? Sirius heard Armen ask.

"I am afraid I am merely a symptom of the problem. " Katarn confessed. "You see, there is another me here. He draws on the force as I once did, his presence resonates within it. When Starbuck's memories began to emerge once more, well I began to re-emerge once more as well, bolstered by the force."

_Starbuck is the problem_? Armen asked for clarification. What about Daniel?

"Daniel was Starbuck's cry for help. Starbuck could not hold all he had and Daniel, inadvertently absorbed the surplus." Katarn explained, "A noble instinct that complicated things and endangered both, still it bought the time Starbuck needed for the three of you to realize you could help him.

_How do we do it_? Armen asked.

"Work together?" Katarn offered encouragingly, "You have the Insight, the will and the way."

_Help us!_

"I cannot do more, I fear I am now becoming a distraction." Katarn replied, "I am an echo generated by body I once was. I am a symptom of Starbuck's disarray I think I can best help you know by staying silent."

_Listen for Starbuck_. None could hear her but Armen, but none needed to, he had become their voice. She felt Todd's assent. Delving deeper into Starbuck's mind they began to encounter memories, flashes of his life, other apparitions, far less substantive than but all gaining cohesion.

_You Must All Be Silent_! Shouted Armen at last, _You are a part of Starbuck, but iff you care for him you must let us find him!_

It seemed to work. Memories made way and cognitions fell silent before this repeated claim, all but one.

"I'm afraid Starbuck isn't available at the moment." Stated a sinister voice with oily intentionhs, "I prefer it to stay that way."

Teal'c heaved the massive make shift barrel of mud onto the pile of hardening clay. He wiped his forehead and placed it on the grouned. Some distance away, Yoda and Roda sat hovering off the ground. Teal'c surveyed the shape solidifying before him. Mud congealed in mid hear, suspended by no visible means.

"Water, through the earth flows." Yoda said as he breathed, "Feel that flow, as the force flows, feel that push as the force pushes. The trees, the rocks, through them all feel the force."

"I see it glowing master." Roda said, "The life within us, the force, it glows!"

"Luminous beings are we." Yoda quoted his favorite phrase, "Not this crude matter."

"But master Teal'c…" Roda said as he peered at the Jaffa. "He's… different…"

"Yes." Yoda nodded at what his Padawan saw, "Yes…"

"initiating forcefield Colonel, over." Fred reported over the radio. Jack stood ready, a nervous Dr. Carter beside him.

"Carter." He hissed. She blinked and he nodded towards the P90 she carried. It was pointed at his midriff.

"Oh. Sorry." She said adjusting its direction, then added lamely "Sir…"

"I didn't copy that over."

Jack rolled his eyes. "I wasn't talking to you Fred, and stop saying over."

"Stop saying what? Over."

"Har de har har." Jack spat into the radio, "Over."

"Just following military protocol sir, over." Fred's voice sounded smug."

"If this is your revenge for the push ups, just remember that training could save your life some day." Jack hissed. "over."

At the beginning of the second week, Jack had finally grown tired of doing nothing while the others poured over the challenges of getting the city operational and trying to salvage enough workable parts to construct a hyperdrive. He had insisted that Fred Sam and Fola begin drilling with him on fitness weapons use and military protocol. Fola as it turned out had had some military training, and Sam had taken to it as a natural, commenting that it reminded her of her youth. Fred had seen it as a new way to torture Jack.

"Carter , can we proceed?" Jack asked.

"Yes sir, with caution." Sam said falling easily into the formal reporting style, "We don't know much about how the shield will behave projected this way."

"Colonel, the further forward we push the greater the pressure on the particle shield." Fola cut in, "It retains the tensile strength to push back only fluids that are slightly viscous. Be advised this could destabilize areas of the city in which you travel."

"Am I to assume your Gremlins will be unaffected?" jack asked

"We don't know how they will react." Fred replied, "All three sightings have been in dry areas though so we can assume they would be capable of moving beyond the shield barrier…"

"Well I…"

"…Over?" Fred finished.

Jack shot Sam a pained expression.

"Alright alright." Jack sighed. "Stay behind me Carter, lets see if this is all just a wild goose chase." He moved forward into the darkened corridor. "Stand by on this channel, we are proceeding down one level."

_Iblis._ Todd's rage washed over them all, stunning them. _You destroyed my people._

"Did I now…" The apparition seemed amused. "Ah yes, the Wraith, your people chose to follow me once."

_You made us monsters!_ Todd raged.

"I gave you power over life and death, power to dominate your enemies." Iblis chided.

_Todd stop._ Armen made his voice heard. _He's just an apparition, a figment of a memory._

"Not a figment, a fragment." Iblis corrected, "of a being so powerful that even an echo can undo you all."

_He plays on your fears, feeds off your emotions and your memories._ Armen interupted, W_hat you give him, for better or for worse sustains him_

"Such insight cannot come from either of you." Iblis frowned, then smiled, "Ah, a silent partner, what's wrong my darling, cat got your tongue?" There was menace in his voice and he raised a hand. Suddenly Siris blinked and found herself torn into view, by her hair, dragged ignominiously into Starbuck's mind. Armen and Todd howled in rage, yet, as both had relied in Sirius to connect them, neither could now break free.

"Found our voice have we?" Iblis mocked, "Perhaps I'm not so powerless as you thought."

Lightsabers clashed.

"Form in the formless, meaning in the meaningless, Seek order in the chaos." Yoda intoned. As Teal'c and Roda parted gasping. Yoda nodded approvingly.

"How master Teal'c?" Roda gasped, "How without the force…"

"Experience has taught me much." Said Teal'c humbly, "and like you, I once had a teacher." He nodded respectfully to Yoda.

"I cannot beat him." Roda said to Yoda, "I immerse myself in the force and yet…"

"Flow through you the force does." Yoda replied, "Guide you it does, but in Teal'c it has found balance. The force is still. Calm."

"Yet he is anything but." Roda said tiredly, "He is like a hurricane in battle." He grabbed a canteen and rank deeply. He looked imploringly and Yoda nodded assent. The young padawan crept tiredly away heading back to the Jumper for the night.

"Impressive, your skill with a light saber has become." Yoda acknowledged, "Singular your intentions, clear is your focus. In battle you excel."

"Indeed." Answered Teal'c thoughtfully switching off his light saber. He looked at it. "My life has forged me into a weapon."

"Displeased by this you are." Yoda commented. Teal'c nodded.

"I would have preferred to be a father." He admitted, "a husband. So singular was I in my quest to avenge the death of my father, to slay the evil that took him from me, I lost that chance." He gripped the light saber, "I desired so much to kill the Goa'uld, I served one in order to do it. When Colonel O'Neill arrived, I joined him, not for the promise of rebellion, but the promise of death." He bowed his head, "My thirst for vengeance has destroyed me."

"Your hand extend, your light saber, ignite again." Yoda ordered standing before him. Teal'c eyed Yoda and then did so. The tip extended to just before the Jedi masters eyes. "Sought death I too have." His eyes met Teal'c's and understanding passed between them. "Suffer, our people have. Weapons we have had to become like this lightsaber…"

"..yet the blade knows when to stop." Teal'c finished in understanding. He turned off the light saber once more. "Perhaps it is a time to stop being a weapon."

"Perhaps time it is, to become more." Yoda challenged. He nodded at the weapon in Teal'c's hand. "A symbol it is. A Torch passed it is. Hold, as a heritage I will, for those who are to come."

"your time will come again." Teal'c stated to the Jedi, "Of this I am sure."

Roda came running from the Jumper, "Master Teal'c, Master Yoda! The others are in trouble! We must go."

"At hand, your time is now." Yoda confirmed to Teal'c. Go now master Teal'c off the jaffa, Remember you, I will."

"Master you must come with us!" Roda implored, "There are things, replicators, jack's cut off from the jumper bay, they're trapped!"

"Here, my place remains." Yoda replied taking the young padawan's hands as Roda knelt, "Your ally, the force is, need me, you do not. Your trial this will be. From this time forward, a Knight you will be."

"Master, I'm not ready!" Roda said, "I'm not sure…"

"Good." Yoda cut him off. "Good. Now go."

Roda knelt before him frozen for a moment, and then Teal'c's hand fell upon his shoulder, and he looked up. He looked back at Yoda and then nodded his head in acceptance. Together the two dashed towards the Jumper And Yoda stood before his newly constructed hovel watching.

"Very good." He said to himself.

"Let her go!" thundered a new voice. Starbuck strode out of mists. Dressed hin black boots, a brown jacket and a tan tunic, with a blaster slung on his left hip. Cameron recognized the unfiroms they had first found on the Pegasus.

"or what." Mocked Iblis. Starbuck drew his blaster and fired. Iblis snapped up a hand and the shot exploded harmlessly against his palm.

"Fool!" Iblis chuckled, "You cannot oppose my power."

"I can when your guard is down." Siris grumbled. From her awkwardly bent position she drive a fist into Iblis' mid section, and as he doubled over, she slammed up with her knee into his face and down on his neck with her elbow. There was an audible crack, The apparition fell lifeless to the ground and then vanished. Sirius turned back to Starbuck.

"Did you forget how to fight?" She challenged him.

"hey I don't know what you're talking about…" Starbuck said holstering his blaster

"No more games Starbuck, we're standing in your mind, at this moment I know you all too well." Sirius said, "my personality, in your brain."

"Look I'm just a colonial warrior whose got himself a little lost…" Starbuck began.

"You've lived dozens of lives by now." Sirius stated flatly she gestured, and another Starbuck appeared, dressed as a jedi, another dressed as an ancient, finally one dressed as captain of the _Athena_, "Yet you choose that one why, because it's the first?" She strode among them, "Because of what began there." She said triumphantly stopping behind the most recent variation. "The name of your ship, a reminder."

"Athena" said the echo. Suddenly all of them spoke and the name echoed "Athena."

"Hey listen lady I don't know how you do your tricks…" Starbuck continued to object.

"These are clues you idiot, these memories that overwhelm you, they are clues." Sirius reached up and seemed to pull the face off Captain Starbuck, she did the same to jedi master Starbuck and swapped them. "Start living your lives Starbuck, you need to put this all together, you need to follow these clues?"

"Why?" Demanded Starbuck suddenly, "Why should I do anything you say."

"Because someone sacrificed himself so you could live once." Sirius gestured and Kyle Katarn stood before them, "And another is on the verge of doing so again." Daniel appeared before her. "You played a dirty trick Starbuck, you couldn't process it all, so you offered some of it to him because you knew he'd accept. Only it didn't work, because it broke seals that weren't meant to be broken." She peered at the Daniel before her, his expression was vacant, "The ancients… left knowledge in him… as part of a plan to thwart the replicators…" her brow furrowed as she saw events. Daniel seizing Carter's hand, Carter smiling and stabbing Daniel, she blinked.

"All unnecessary." She breathed, "This was the wrong Daniel…" She turned to Starbuck.

"help him." She demanded, "Fight to regain your life Starbuck, relive those memories and put them where they belong. This man has been used too many times, he cannot be asked to die once more. He cannot."

Their gazes met, and Starbuck gave a weak smile.

"The women has a point." He said to the vacant clones standing about him, "Looks like its time to get to know eachother." He turned back to Sirius, "You're a very special lady. Time for you to go."

"We can stay and help…" She offered.

"No need." He replied flashing her a confident grin, "I got this. He gently prodded her, "I'll see you on the other side."

And suddenly she awoke.

"Good God we're taking off!" Fola shouted firing his blaster at the spiders that swarmed beneath him.

"Nah ya think?" Fred retorted slamming another clip into the Automatic rifle he had borrowed, he took Sam's place in the hallway as she reloaded. Jack swung around the corner.

"Fire in the hole!" he shouted pulling a detonator. The explosion was lost amid the rumbling and shaking of the tower. The spray of replicators fragments spelled a welcome albeit shortlived relief from the pressing tides. Jack wasted no time in jamming a new clip into his P90. "That was the alst one, if anyone has any bright ideas, nows the time…"

"We're in the upper atmosphere," Fred shouted over the roaring wind, "I don't think these things care that the city isn't airtight, if we don't get to the Jumper bay in the next few minutes we're dead!"

"We'd never make it." Jack said pointing at his leg. Deep jagged wounds hastily bandaged were clearly evident, "They'll rip us to shreds before we got halfway there."

"Maybe Fola can make it." Fred said dejectedly, gasping now for air. Sam took cover from the roaring wind burying her face under Jack's arm.

"I prefer to spend…" Roda shouted gasping, "… my last few minutes… with my friends… rather… than clawing uselessly at the door of a ship I can't fly."

"maybe with a large enough genetic sample…" Jack looked doubtfully at his bandage. He fingered his belt knife apprehensively.

"maybe that won't be necessary!" Shouted a familiar voice. Roda appeared in the hallway between the gateroom and the Jumper bay. Replicators swarmed behind him and he backed towards his friends slashing at them with his light saber, "Teal'c!" he shouted into his mic, "They're here!"

The wall on the side of the gateroom erupted in ffire and through the newly formed hole, the jumper appeared.

"Alright Teal'c!" Jack Cheered, "Everybody move!" Fola and Fred made their way with Sam supporting jack, and Roda bringing up the rear. With a surge a crowd of replciators charged forward. Roda extended a hand and blew them back with a thrust of the force so powerful it shattered many into pieces against the wall. Even as they reassembled, more took their place."

"We must leave!" Teal'c shouted

"We can't!" Fred protested, "We have to destroy this thing, You heard what that Replicator said when his minions wounded Jack, its headed straight to Coruscant!"

"I blew him to hell with the C-4" jack objected

"it doesn't matter, he would have passed on the imperative to the collective." Sam said.

"Then I presume you all have ideas?" Jack demanded.

Sam Fola and Fred looked reluctantly at eachother.

"We dial the gate." Sam said, "That would release the energy the replicators have been feeding off of all at once."

"I thought that was bad." Jack said tearing open a first aid kit and fumbling for bandages. Sam knelt to help him.

"We have to activate the city computer, and dial from that console." Fred pointed at the wreckage beyond the window, "Which means someone has to be out there when we do it. We also hve to complete the dialing process in a fraction of a second."

"So?" Jack asked, "We type fast?"

"No, you don't understand Jack, this has to be _really _fast." Fred explained as Roda returned to the Jumper, he closed the door behind them. "Though, if we use an eight symbol address, it might buy us the time we need to get through the gate before the city goes up. "

"We know neither the point of origin for this planet, nor this galaxy." Teal'c commented. They sat in silence for a moment as the replicators swarmed beneath them. Through the ruptured wall they could see stars, and the emerald orb of Dagobah.

"There!" Sam pointed. Through the window, in the corner of the room a mutilated man could be seen limping out. Half man, half twisted melted remains of a droid he pointed an accusing finger at jack through the window. Jack waved.

"hey buddy!" he shouted, "Settled on a name yet?"

"You really shouldn't antagonize the bad guys Jack." Fred warned.

"or what?" Jack asked, "We're fifteen feet off the…." He looked down at the swarming mass of spiders that were now climbing onto one another in a pile. "…nuts."

"ok time to pack…" Jack said hobbling over to the jumpers controls.

"I can do this." Roda said into the silence, "With the force I can turn on the computer and dial the address."

"What address?" Jack insisted, "We don't have anywhere to go. Lets just head back to Dagobah and let this… Empire.. handle it." He waved a hand dismissively.

"You know we can't do that Jack." Fred said, "Sure they'll blow the city out of the sky, but its awfully big, and its swarming, if even one of those things lands on a planet or latches onto a ship…"

"The force will guide me, I know it will." Roda said putting a hand on jack's arm. Jjack looked at him. "Trust me!"

"Look… Roda… no offense…" jack said

"I am no longer a padawan Jack." Roda replied anticipating what he was about to say, "I am a Jedi Knight, a guardian of life just as you are a soldier, a protector of a way of life. I need to do this, we all do, we can't let Coruscant and all off the people on it be devoured."

Jack was silent. He looked at Sam for support, she shrugged. He looked at Teal'c but found no help there.

"Alright." He said resigned, "I hope you all understand this means we'll never find Daniel and Cameron again…"

"The force is with them Jack." Roda said confidently, as it is with us." He closed his eyes and extended his hand….

Deep in the silence of space a city exploded in the night. A second star blossomed over a world long since forgotten. Demons from another time and space vanished, and all was still once more.

Dagobah spun slowly around its sun, counting the days, months and years until itt would be visited once again.


	25. Epilogue

Epilogue

"Well, Well well." Paul's familiar voice greeted Starbuck as he awoke, "Look who has returned to the land of the living."

Starbuck looked at the man standing beside him, as with fresh eyes.

"Hello Paul." He said, he glanced around and found Daniel lying on a bed nearby. With a critical eye Starbuck checked his vitals.

"Merely asleep." Paul assured him, "Though he hasn't yet awoken, his brain activity returned to normal some time ago, it seems Sirius was quite successful."

"Where is everybody?" Starbuck asked.

"Todd thought it would be prudent to give them a tour of the ship, explain the new refits, something like that." Paul smiled, "I believe it was just to get everyone out of your hair when you woke up."

Starbuck considered this. "I'm not sure what to do about him."

"Can he be trusted?" Paul asked, "He inferred that he had the confidence of an ancient."

"yeah, well we're not infallible." Starbuck replied, "But that's not why I don't trust him. I've seen his mind you see, Todd.. means well… his intentions seem good…"

"I believe Earth that was had an expression, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions." Paul said carefully. Starbuck considered this,

"You realize now that it's Earth that is, not Earth that was." He commented to Paul, "The worlds you left behind, that future, it will probably never happen in this timeline."

Paul was silent. He moved about Daniel checking equipment, saying nothing. Starbuck pulled aside the sheet that covered him and after arranging his surgical garment, moved towards a bureau to one side upon which his folded clothes were placed. He stepped behind a privacy screen and began to dress.

"Most of my memories have returned Paul. I know quite a bit more about where you came from. The future you are from came about because an Ori attack on Avalon, or, the Milky Way, as our friends call it, succeeded. There were no ancients to reseed the galaxy with Stargates, no Ancients to use the device on dakara. One of the few remaining stargates in the galaxy remained undiscovered beneath the polar icecaps on Earth was never visited by the Goa'uld, the Asgard, nor any other nonhuman races." Starbuck finished dressing and stepped out. "Without alien intervention, humanity had to start from scratch, and they ran down the clock on Earth, by the time they could safely leave it, it was useless to them."

"We found a new solar system." Paul replied slowly, "hundreds of new earths were terra formed." He sighed. "I will not be returning then."

"There are ways, Paul," Starbuck said, "But what would you be returning for?"

"Redemption, I suppose can be found anywhere." Paul said bitterly. "Ah well. I had not realized I would miss it until I discovered it was gone." He returned to Daniel's side, "How odd, to find oneself the product of a world that will never exist." He looked up gravely at Starbuck, "I wonder, am I real? Or do I simply believe I am real. Do I remember things that happened, or do I merely believe that I remember them."

"Reality can be a complicated concept." Starbuck said grinning easily. He clapped Paul on the shoulder, "You seem pretty real to me." Paul looked at him sharply for a moment, and considered.

"For an enlightened being, you seem startlingly down to Earth, if you will pardon the expression." Paul observed.

"Yeah." Starbuck agreed, "I didn't get along well with the other ascendeds. They were a little to ethereal."

"Aggggh…." Daniel moaned putting a hand to his head, and starting to sit up.

"Sounds like he's making a rough reentry to the land of the living." Starbuck commented as Paul checked his readings. After assuring himself the man would be alright, Paul moved to the com station on the wall to inform Cameron.

"Starbuck… " Daniel said, "The next time you lose your mind, can you try not to take anyone with you?"

"Oh well my apologies." Starbuck said with a half grin, "I figured if I was going bonkers I might like some company."

"oh, well…" Daniel blinked, "That's…very odd…" he closed his eyes,

"is everything alright?" Paul asked concerned.

"Sure, yeah, everything's great…" Daniel said, "Except when we decided to play fifty two pickup with Starbucks memories, he left a few cards in my head. Who is this Kyle Katarn?"

Another city. Another tomb. Those were jack's ffirst thoughts as they emerged from the Stargate. An alarm blared outside however, as the lights came on. Behind the jumper a forcefield flared over the Stargate, ignited and then the gate shut down.

"Where are we?" Fred asked turning to Roda.

"Where the force wills us to be." Roda replied equitably.

"Better than where we were." Jack replied, he turned to Sam, "I take it the big BOOM we heard was the end of Atlantis?"

"It would seem so." Sam said examining the readings that scrolled over her lap top, "Based on the amount of energy being released, not even the Stargate would have survived that explosion. She checked the jumper's main and then looked more closely.

"uh oh." Jack said, noting the double take.

"Jack if I'm reading this right we've moved forward in time again." She said with growing excitement, "Forty years this time." She turned to him, "jack I think we're within a few years of when we left."

"how nice for you." Fred stated dryly.

"For us all." Teal'c observed, "if we succeeded in reestablishing the timeline from which Cameron and Daniel came, the jaffa are free, and the Goa'uld are no more. The jedi have defeated the Sith in your own galaxy." He placed a hand on Roda's shoulder, "There may yet be a home, for all of us."

"Not all of us." Sam said glumly. Jack patted her knee in sympathy.

"I'm sure they'll be fine." Jack said. "Lets get back home Sam, get the people there on it, maybe with their help we can…"

"I'm alright Jack." Sam said with a deep breath. "And we're not home yet." She turned back to her lap top and began typing.

"Is it me, or is the writing on those stairs in basic." Fred commented pointing.

"It looks like gibberish to me." Jack said. Sam nodded agreement as did Fola. Teal'c looked at him speculatively.

"There are tales of some who pass through the Stargate gaining an affinity for understanding other languages." He revealed. "Daniel Jackson commented on this once."

"Right, he said the more he travelled through the gate the easier it became to decipher languages." Sam said, "I thought he was talking about experiences."

"The thing takes you apart and puts you back together." Fred said shuddering a little. "I'm not parochial, but that seems just plain unnatural, either way, maybe it put me back together slightly differently."

"Well since you can now read ancient, why don't you tell us what it…" Jack stopped as the Jumper anticipated his request and provided an on screen translation.

"Welcome to Lemuria. Please use caution as you exit the embarkation room."

"I see you redecorated." Starbuck commented looking around. He had a mixed expression on his face as he surveyed the Control Center of the Battlestar _Pegasus. _The refits Todd had overseen had left the large forward screen where it was, but many of the consoles had been reorganized. An outer ring of stations surrounded a smaller central ring contained two command stations and a walk way connected the elevated outer ring with the central Armen strode down this from the front of the room framed by the darkness of space in the window beyond. Behind this raised still higher was a platform and a railing from which one could watch over the entire command center where Todd stood. A holo table displayed the Pegasus and the surrounding star system. To one side Raala peered over the shoulder of a man operating an engineering station conversing over a wireframe schematic of the battlestar. Jarrol was down in the forward pit eagerly surveying a gunnery station being manned by a number of battledroids.

"Jubal is on board the _Athena_." Raala reported, straightening as she saw Starbuck. "We difgured you wouldn't want the ship left unattended, though I have to say, Todd has certainly done an impressive job refitting this ship."

"When Daniel is ready he will join us here." Todd reported, switching off the comm., "Along with Cameron, Sirius and Paul. The ship is yours Starbuck."

"That won't be necessary." Starbuck replied putting a hand up to forestall questions. "Todd is correct that if I so desired I could claim command of the Pegasus as one off the few surviving colonials who originally built her. However, this won't be my ship." He took a breath. "My ship is the Athena, and I am going to find its namesake. I've already spoken with Paul and he's with me, I believe Jubal will come with me as well."

"Are you looking for volunteers?" Armen asked carefully.

"I've worked with all of you before, and I know I'd be lucky." Said Starbuck, "But I think Daniel and Cameron need you more, because this will be their ship from now one."

"you're just giving it away?" jarrol demanded, "How come I don't get a ship."

"you don't own a battlestar." Starbuck said, "You use it. Where I'm going, I won't be use it, and I have a feeling Cameron and Daniel, are going to need to use it."

"Why do you expect us to stay aboard?" Armen asked curiously.

"Because Sirius will." Starbuck answered simply, "And you're a family." Armen and Raala glanced at one another and nodded. Jarrol rolled his eyes.

"Big brothers will always protect little sisters." Armen commented wryly.

"So where's this ship going?" Jarrol asked, "And where does this leave him?" he jerked a finger at Todd. The Wraith shifted uncomfortably. Starbuck shrugged.

"If I know Cameron, he'll keep you on." Starbucks aid, "The man's not an idiot, he knows he'll need an experienced commander. The questions is what do you want to do here Todd?"

"Well I have invested considerable time in preparing this ship, and in fact, most of my remaining assets are concentrated here." Todd said.

"In short you have nowhere else to go." Interjected a jovial voice. Cameron strode onto the bridge. Sirius beside, Daniel trailing behind. "Welcome to the team Tin Man."

"I guess that makes me the cowardly lion." Observed Daniel.

"I am pleased that you have found it in you to trust me." Todd said in genuine surprise.

"Well the lady vouches for you, and you saved both Starbuck and Daniel." Cameron answered, "I wouldn't say I trust you quite yet but I'm willing to extend a line of credit." He turned to Starbuck, "So what's all this about you being a colonial and giving me the ship."

Sam sat on the balcony of a towering skyscraper. Below her the city glimmered in the darkness. Though the individual buildings were not lit, street lights and walkways were. Beacons winked on and off slowly on the tops and edges of most buildings illuminating their shadowy profiles. Above was a yawning blackness, eternal night with no stars.

"Hey Sam." Fred sauntered over. "I brought you lunch. Credit for your thoughts?"

"huh? Oh, right." Sam smiled, "Sorry I was just thinking about a Klein's bottle."

Fred blinked.

"Its just a theoretical object I remember from school." Sam struggled to explain. "What we call a moebius strip is an unbroken surface with only two edges." Fred nodded in understanding and Sam felt encouraged. "When we went from our own time back to Egypt of the past to recover that ZPM, we contributed to our own past. We caused the rebellion that buried the Stargate, that prompted the first team to go back, which prompted the jumper and the tape which led to us going back, to be there in order to cause the original rebellion."

Fred nodded in understanding, "Causality, you bit yourself in the ass." He chuckled.

Sam beamed, "precisely!" she realized what he was referring too and her face fell a bit, "Yeah, and having eliminated our own reality we kind of.. but that wasn't what I was thinking of exactly." She said

"Go on…" Fred encouraged.

"Well.. a Klein bottle is like a moebius strip only its enclosed." Sam said, "The city we just left, the alternate Atlantis? That's the product of an entirely different timeline, an entirely different moebius strip, interacting with our own. Cameron Mitchell coming back in time to return history to its original design relative to him, that's the same thing. I was kind of imagining all these tiny intersections and merging of timelines and cross parallel timelines and…"

"I get the picture." Fred said. "Kind of makes you wonder doesn't it."

"What." Sam asked perplexed.

"Whats in the bottle?" Fred asked grinning foolishly.

"Gosh I hope its not a genie." Jack's voice interrupted, "Because that would just be so cliché…" He dropped a package beside Sam it was an MRE, "I brought you lunch." He tossed another to Fred.

"I thought you were out of these." Fred said surprised.

"I found them in the Jumper." Jack said, "and its 'we' Fred, you guys are stuck with us now. Besides, after living on 'nerf stew' for two weeks I could use a taste of home."

"What planet does "Chicken Tetrazzini come from?" Fred asked doubtfully.

"Can we afford to keep eating all of these?" Sam asked doubtfully.

"Don't know." Jack answered cheerfully, "Teal'c and Roda are scouting for an exit to this stupendous cavern we find ourselves in, but barring that there's always Fola's discovery."

"The greenhouse?' Fred asked, "Its going to take some time to get back online you know."

"So what." Jacks aid indifferently nudging the MRE towards Sam. He tore open his own. "We'll use the Stargate if we have to."

"The second address looked habitable." Fred conceded.

"The first was a radioactive wasteland." Sam countered. "And that "Habitable" world showed signs of nuclear activity within the past ten years."

"Cygnus karum Tauron and Cygnus karem Kobol." Fred supplied, "According to the database there are actually more stargates in this system, but we can't reach them from our gate. Kobol was supposed to be a sort of external hub of travel, but judging by the ruins, nothing in this galaxy is going according to plan. If they're tossing nukes around at each other they must be pretty primitive."

"hey, I resemble that remark." Jack objected biting into a cracker. "Look, we've been through a lot. I can't guarantee its going to get any better." He prodded the MRE one final time towards Sam and she acquiesced picking it up and studying its contents. "Lets just take a breather, take in the sights and.."

"..plan our next move." Fred supplied. He heard footsteps on the stairs behind them, and the familiar buzzing of Fola's wings. Teal'c and Roda arrived behind them accompanied by the Toydarian.

"Will you look at that?" Jack darkness above them glimmered faintly, than flickered, and then began to glow.

"Some kind of Phosphorescent lichen on the ceiling." Fred observed.

"Probably has some kind of luminescent cycle, " Sam hazarded into the silence/ "or maybe it was triggered when we turned on the…"

"Shh." Jack adminoshed snaking an arm around her. They sat in silence watching as the sky above them lit up the city below.

"Cameron we're ready for takeoff." Starbuck reported into the comm.. Paul sat beside him, Jubal stood behind. Through the viewport the spinning disk off the Corusca galaxy rotated. The Pegasus was positioned at the galaxy's perimeter, having travelled to a convenient position from which to launch the Athena.

Cameron looked back at Todd who nodded and issued orders to the identical men seated before him.

"Hey if we find Jack and the others, we'll let you know." Cameron replied.

"Just try to stick to one time period." Starbuck suggested a chuckle in his voice, "Those communication stones are intergalactic, not inter dimensional." Through the massive viewport before him he could see the Athena glide out of the docking bay. She rolled gracefully over the prow of the battle star and angled on a specific vector.

"Cora says readings are green on the tylium drive, thank Todd for the parts. With any luck we'll make it to Cygnus in just a couple of weeks." Starbuck reported.

"You come back with your lady friend you hear?" Cameron said putting an arm around Sirius.

"Thanks Cameron." Starbuck said. "Spinning up FTL drive…."

"hey Starbuck." Interjected Daniel from his seat to one side, "Thanks for the memories."

"Har de har har." Starbuck replied sardonically, "You boys take care of my crew, and that ship." There was a pause, and the bulb on the back of the Athena suddenly flared. "She's almost the last one there is."

With that the Athena vanished, hurling herself off towards another galaxy.

"Almost?" Cameron blinked.

"May the force be with you Starbuck." Sirius whispered beside him.

"Right." Cameron said turning around and clapping his hands. Todd handed him a checklist. "Weapons?"

"Weapons report ready." Jarrol replied from the pit by the weapons.

"Engines, Raala, how we doing?" Cameron glanced towards her station. After consultation with several identical crew members she nodded, "Sublight, hyperdrive and Tylium drive ready, all systems nominal."

"Fighter bays report." Cameron announced, and then realizing jarrol was seated beside him putting a startled hand to his ear he amended "sorry."

"Alpha and Beta bays report ready. All drones standing by, Viper squadron is on alert." Armen reported.

"Sickbay, report." Cameron asked squinting at the list. He looked around at a loss. Tod depressed a button by his station and motioned for Cameron to repeat. "Sickbay report!"

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency." A mechanical voice replied. Cameron let out a breath.

"Right we got a droid on that," he muttered. He handed the checklist back to Todd, "You know what, lets skip the check list this once ok Todd? Pilot!"

"Yes sir?' Sirius turned from the helm with a grin.

"Set Course for the fourth moon of Yavin!" Cameron said tossing a hand off at the view screen before them. "and make it go."

Angling around in the darkness the Pegasus rolled onto her new heading and her engines blazed. She hurdled into the collection of stars before her once more carrying those aboard to their destination.

A figure watched in the darkness of space as the battlestar receded accompanied by another.

"Nicely done Adama." The second said to the first, "Starbuck returns to where he is needed, with Sheba at his side, their friends are safely on Lemuria, and these hurdle straight into destiny. All without a direct hand at all. Well played."

"If you think this is a game Baltar, I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken." Adama replied, "You saw our fates written on the walls of Atlantis as did I. A single mis-step could mean victory for Iblis, and iff that happens…"

"It will spell doom for us all." Baltar agreed. "If we could just marshal the Alliance that once was…"

"The Ancients have lost their focus." Adama replied, "The asgard are too few, the Nox indifferent and the Furlings…" he shook his head.

"But these children are not read!" Baltar protested, he moves too quickly. The Tauri have the courage but are too few, the Jedi have the strength but not the will, and our own poor children, we know what is coming for them, they teeter on the brink of annihilation and we are forebidden to interfere."

"all is not lost yet." Adama said closing his eyes and extending his senses, "There may yet be brothers of man fighting for survival somewhere out there.." He gestured in the darkness, "Beyond the heavens."

"I hope you are right Adama." Baltar declared, "For the sake of us all."


End file.
